PROLOGUE

"Do you remember that talk we had?" Lucca asked as she watched the time portal, its soft blue light bathing everything around it.

"You mean about whether our lives flash by before we die?" Marle answered turning towards her.

"Yeah," Lucca turned to answer Marle. "I get the feeling that the 'Entity' is finally at rest."

"Yes, I feel that too..." Marle's voice trailed off. For the first time in weeks she felt relaxed. Truly relaxed, as if a great weight has been lifted from her chest. "Time travel," she continued. "How exhausting!"

"We should dismantle the Epoch." As Lucca spoke, Marle couldn't help but notice a tone of sadness to her voice. "Its job is finished."

Crono detected Lucca's sadness too and was about to say something to his old friend, when...

"You naughty things, come back here!"

Crono and his friends immediately swung around to see several kittens and Crono's mother running towards them.

"Look, Crono!" Crono's mother said as she stopped for a moment to catch her breath. "You're cats' are running away because you haven't been feeding them!" she yelled pointing to the group of kittens that now hovered near the time portal. Just then, the kittens raced into the portal. "Hey, come back here!" Crono's mother shouted as she sprinted into the portal after them.

Crono dove after her, but not quickly enough. The portal shut before he got to it.

"Oh great! Crono, that Gate will never open again!" Marle said with an expression of shock on her face. However, it was nothing compared to Crono's expression of shock, horror, and disbelief. To lose one's own mother to the space-time continuum...

"Well," a bright smile was falling over Lucca's face. "It looks like we have no choice but to go after them!"

This confused Marle for a minute. How could Lucca be happy at a time like this? And wasn't she sad just a minute ago? "Go after them?" The concept boggled her mind. "But the Gate's..." as she spoke, her own words seemed strange. Lucca was right but how? Then, it hit her! "Lucca, don't turn off your brain yet!"

"We have a Time Machine, remember?" Lucca said just as she about to burst into outright laughter.

CHAPTER 1

With a bright flash, the Epoch reentered the time stream. Below the golden vehicle, rolling hills and valleys of green dominated the landscape. In the distance, a domed city was visible.

"Look how much it's all changed!" Marle said as she watched the world below her. "It's beautiful, Crono."

"Hard to believe a few hours ago this place used to be a burned out hulk," Lucca said also engrossed in the view.

Crono nodded as he punched up the Epoch's navigational system. After a moment of confusion, he turned to Lucca, who was still looking into the distance. He thought this was a little unusual for her. After a second of watching her soak up the beauty before her, he interrupted.

"Huh? Proto Dome? Isn't on the map?" Lucca asked. Crono shook his head. "Your right. The geography's changed somewhat." She studied the computer screen intensely. "I bet it's this one," she pointed to a dome shaped structure on the Northern Continent. Crono agreed and swung the 'Wings of Time' in the dome's direction.

"It doesn't look that different from before," Lucca said as she stood before Proto Dome. As the setting sun's rays reflected off the dome's glass she covered her eyes with her left hand. "Let's go find Robo."

The group walked into the great structure. Inside they found people. A lot of people. A strange sight after what they'd been through.

"Where could he be?" Marle asked as she looked around the Entrance Hall. As she scanned their surroundings, Crono shared an idea with her. "You're right, let's ask someone."

With a nod from Lucca, Marle ran off to flag down a passer-by. "Yes, young lady?" a man said as he answered Marle's hail.

"We're looking for a friend of ours... his name is Robo."

"Robo? Young lady, you just described half the machines in this dome." Seeing the happy expression fall from her face, he continued, "You'll have to be more specific."

"Um... more specific?" Marle stood there not knowing what say.

"R-66Y, we're looking for R-66Y." Lucca broke in.

"Well, if you want any robot, you should go to the dome's Robot Dispatch and Storage Area. It's just behind that door," he pointed to a door at the end hall.

Crono instantly recognized the door, and so did the others. As the man walked away, after Marle thanked him, Lucca spoke up; "It's right where the Mystic Mountains Portal used to be."

"Let's go take a look!" Marle said as she sprinted towards the door. Crono and Lucca followed her. Once at the door, Crono knocked. Silence at first. Then, the door opened to reveal a blue R Series robot. Crono asked the blue droid about Robo. The machine simply nodded and pointed to a brown robot hooked to some computers. Crono gave his thanks and walked over to the robot. Crono spoke, but it did not elicit a response. But then...

"PRESENCE DETECTED. CEASING SYSTEM ANALYSIS. SYSTEM ON-LINE. ACTIVATING OPTICAL SENSORS." just then Robo's green eyes lit up. "CRONO!!! MARLE!!! LUCCA!!!", Robo immediately unplugged all the cables hooked up to him and ran over to his friends. "Whatever are you doing here?" Robo asked.

"Well, you see... It's kinda like this," Marle stepped forward to explain to Robo the events that occurred just after he left 1000 AD.

"I see." Robo did not like what he heard. If Crono's mother was in this point in time, then... She wasn't safe. With all the strange goings on lately... No, he couldn't bring himself to tell Crono or even Lucca of the possible danger Crono's mother was in. And the other robots, could he trust them?

"Is something wrong, Robo?" something wasn't right to Lucca.

"Everything's quite all right," Robo spoke still thinking of the problem at hand. They would be safe here, he thought. As safe as any human could be these days. "Listen," he began. "I know the owner of the local hotel. He owes me a favor. You should all rest for now." He then turned towards Crono. "I will arrange for a full search party to find your mother. Do not worry. Is this acceptable?"

Crono turned to Marle and Lucca. But before he could ask for their advice, they nodded in agreement with Robo. Crono then expressed his gratitude to Robo and accepted his offer.

"Lucca, are you feeling all right?" Marle asked as Lucca stared out the hotel window. Lucca had been quiet since last night. Marle couldn't quite put her finger on it, but...

"I'm all right," Lucca answered still staring at the domed skyline before her. "Just thinking, that's all."

"About what?"

Lucca didn't answer Marle right away. She just stared. Why was Robo acting so strange? Is he hiding something? He couldn't! Not Robo!

"Lucca?"

"Uh," Lucca uttered trying to shake the uneasy feeling that had been plaguing her since the night before. "Nothing. It's nothing."

It wasn't nothing. Something was bothering Lucca. But Marle couldn't bring herself to pry any further. With a sigh, she checked the clock on one of the two nightstands that divided the three beds. "Oh, look at the time! Robo's going to meet us downstairs in half an hour!" She turned to Crono who was still in a deep sleep in his bed. "Crono! Wake up, Crono!" she said, her efforts in vain. Crono was nowhere near consciousness. "Oh, he's not waking."

Lucca finally turned around to see Marle trying several methods of waking Crono. None of them seemed to have any affect. "Hmmmmm."

"Oh! I'd swear he could sleep through anything!" Marle cried out in frustration.

"I've got an idea," Lucca said indicating the ice bucket that was sitting on a table.

"You don't mean..."

"Oh, yes I do. A little ice water should do the trick!"

With that, Marle picked up the ice bucket. In the bucket, most of the ice had already melted except for a couple of stubborn chunks. She went over to Crono's bed and hesitated a little at first. But then... A loud scream became clearly audible throughout the hotel.

"Ha ha ha. Serves you right for ignoring the alarm clock," Lucca laughed. Crono was not so pleased and protested until Marle cut him off.

"Enough already! Go get cleaned up! We have to be downstairs in twenty minutes, okay?"

"Oh, I see," Lucca said while sipping a cup of futuristic coffee. "Even though a few minutes passed for us, three months have passed for you here. Right?" Lucca, Marle, Robo, and Crono were sitting at a table in the Proto Dome Cafe. Robo had brought them here for breakfast and had just spent the last half-hour explaining the events of his life during the last three months.

Robo was about to answer Lucca when Marle broke in. "Wait, I don't follow. What do you mean?"

"What I mean, is that between the point in time where Robo stepped into the Gate at Leene Square and the point in time when we got into the Epoch and took off for this time period, three months passed for Robo here." Lucca tried to explain, however, a look of confusion was still visible on Marle's face.

"But I thought the trips were instantaneous? I mean, we should have arrived here just after Robo got here. Right?"

"You're right, but something seems to be disrupting the Space-Time Continuum. It's the best explanation I can think of." Lucca turned toward Crono, "What do you think?"

Crono just shrugged.

"That would seem to be a viable theory, however..." Robo started, but was cut off in mid sentence by a robot that entered the Cafe and asked to speak to Robo in an audible version of Machine Language. "If you'll excuse me for a moment," Robo said getting up from the table.

Lucca's bad feeling was back. Something wasn't right again. Around her she could hear all sorts of conversations with one general topic in common: the people were worried. The machines of this era have been acting up lately and the people don't seem to know what to do. Stories of irregular behavior by computer terminals, droids, and machinery in general permeated the air. She even heard someone comparing the current problems to the actions of some old operating system. Something called Doors or Windows or something ninety-something or other. She disregarded the statement and returned to the remainder of her breakfast.

The group sat and waited several minutes before it became even clearer that something was wrong. "That's odd. Robo hasn't come back yet," Marle said.

"I think we'd better go after him," Lucca was already getting up to leave.

"You're right. Crono, you go pay for the food. We'll be outside."

Crono nodded and told the two to go ahead. He'd catch up with them. Marle and Lucca agreed and ran out the door. Crono quickly went over to the cashier and surrendered the proper amount of gold. Once out the door, he looked around for Marle and Lucca. Then he saw Marle waving to him from across the Market Place. Crono quickly joined his friends. Marle and Lucca didn't seem too cheerful all of a sudden and now he saw why.

"Hand over the Humans!!!", one of three Buggers yelled.

"Humans?! What are you talking about?" Robo answered them defensively.

"Mother is NOT pleased! She wants those Humans dead. Now where are they?!"

"Your tone is becoming increasingly hostile. What does Mother want with... my friends?"

"FRIENDS?!!!", this word seemed to agitate the already agitated Buggers. "You are a traitor!!! Prepare to be terminated!!!"

"Just as I had feared," Robo said entering Combat Mode. "I do not believe that what you're planning would be wise."

"Yeah! Lay off!" Marle yelled out.

Marle's sudden outburst made the Buggers aware of the Human's presence. "The Humans!!! We must terminate them all!!!"

With that, Crono, Marle, and Lucca drew their weapons and began to fight.

"You, guys ready?!", Lucca yelled out as she dodged a laser blast.

"No time like the present!" Marle answered jumping over a laser blast herself, crossbow firing barrage after barrage.

Once all were in agreement, Crono, Marle, and Lucca holstered their weapons.

"We can't just..." Robo protested, but another robot somehow kept him from joining the fight. Robo could only look on as his friends made ready for their next move.

Together, all three heroes began to rise three or four feet in the air. Propelled by an unseen force, each warrior was busy focusing each his or her power. Then... "DELTA FORCE!!!" the group shouted in unison. The buggers were instantly covered in fire, ice, and electricity. An instant later, they were no more than piles of metal and smoldering plastic and silicon.

"I wonder what all that was about," Marle said turning to Robo. Next to him she saw a pink R Series droid with her right hand on Robo's left shoulder. Marle thought about it for a moment. She realized that this must be Atropos, and that she was the one who stopped Robo from involving himself in the fight. "What's going on, Robo?"

"It is as I feared. Something is wrong with, Mother," Robo responded.

"R66-Y, what are you implying about Mother?" Atropos questioned. "Who are these humans? Why do they call you Robo?"

"I'll tell you on they way," Robo said turning to Atropos. "However, we must depart for Geno Dome immediately!"

"I don't get it. What's going on, Robo?" Marle asked.

"Yeah, you've been acting strange since we arrived," Lucca added.

"I fear something is very wrong in this new time stream."

"Wrong? What do you mean, Robo?" Lucca pressed her point. She'd felt something was wrong too, but she hadn't said anything about it. She now began to feel the... the... wrongness of this time stream. Just like she felt yesterday afternoon and just minutes ago.

"We must leave immediately," Robo stated firmly. He was still unwilling to tell the others of what he envisioned was wrong. But there was no time for that now!

"Wait, we can't all fit in the Epoch," Marle said.

"We will not be taking the Epoch. We will take this dome's transporter," Robo answered.

"Transporter?" Lucca asked.

"It is very much like your telepod system."

"A transporter..." Lucca repeated. Her eyes opened wide, like those of child opening a gift. All of a sudden, the problem at hand disappeared. All Lucca could think about now was this wonderful device... a transporter!

Once the group arrived at the Proto Dome Transporter Room, Lucca broke away and sprinted over to the control panel. "Whoa! Computer Integrated Pattern Buffers!" Lucca quickly looked over the buttons and the display screen, every wire and panel, every nut and bolt. The Transporter Chief tried to stop her from tinkering with the system, but Lucca was just too quick. "How do you keep patterns older than fifteen seconds from degrading? Is this system linked or does is it have a remote radius? Have you ever scanned any temporal rifts or anomalies occurring within the Pattern Emitters?"

"Don't touch that! I don't know! Quit running around! NO!!! You'll decalibrated those!" the Chief cried out trying to stop this rather odd young girl who had now taken to messing with his Transporter System. "Please behave your self!"

"Lucca?" Marle tried get Lucca's attention without success. "Lucca?" Marle tried again. Nothing. Lucca was still fawning over the advanced technology before her. Marle sighed and turned to Crono. "See what you can do with her."

Crono immediately began to creep up behind Lucca. Under his breath he mumbled something about "Payback," but was too low in volume to be heard by anyone. And then...

A tremendous rumbling shook the dome. "What in the..." Lucca yelped out, finally returning from the techno-dream land she'd be in the past few minutes. "What was that?!"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Robo said slowly. "We must go now. We can not wait any longer."

With that, the group stepped atop the transporter and each took his or her own pad. A white light enveloped the five adventurers. Seconds later they reappeared in a similar looking room in a city several miles from Proto Dome. The group then left the Transporter Room and found themselves on a busy street surrounded by elegant high-rises and skyscrapers.

"Where are we?" Marle asked humbled by the bright city lights and the din of city noise.

"We are in Choras," Robo answered.

"Choras? This is Choras?" Lucca could not believe the sights before her.

Just then another loud rumbling came. Somewhat louder then the last one, its vibrations showed on every aspect of the city.

"Another one? Is it an earthquake?" Lucca asked. Then a darker thought came to mind. Much darker. "Is it... Lavos?"

"Negative. Measuring direction, reverberation, and acoustics," Robo said. For a couple of seconds he stood silent. Then he spoke, "It is an explosion. Centered to the Northwest."

"Explosion?!" Marle was getting a bad feeling.

"Quickly to Geno Dome!" Robo stated pointing to the North.

As the group reached Geno Dome, more rumbling shook the ground beneath them. Another explosion went off nearby nearly knocking Marle to her feet. Fortunately, Crono was there to catch her. As Marle thanked Crono, Robo spoke about this explosion being only a few miles to the North.

"So how do we get in?" Lucca asked puzzling over the security keypad set into the wall next to Geno Dome's main entrance.

"Like so," Robo said as he stepped toward the door. Then the door opened up automatically.

"Huh?" Lucca wondered.

"Security Safeties are Off," Robo began. "The door was opened the entire time."

"Oh," she had been wondering why the keypad's display was off.

"Good morning, R66-Y. Please come in," said a feminine yet synthetic sounding voice.

"I know that voice..." Marle began but trailed off as the others entered the Dome before her. "Hey! Wait up!" she quickly rejoined the others inside.

Before the party stood a large computer console. It's screen flashed forth enigmatic images and text. Near the console, a speaker was built into the wall. "I see you have brought your..." the speaker said in the same synthetic female voice. It stopped for a moment, as if the person on the other end couldn't find the proper words. "Friends..." the voice is finally said with what seemed to be a hint of sarcasm.

"Mother, why did you send Buggers to kill my friends?" Robo asked, his voice resolute.

"I have my reasons," the voice continued. The subtle sarcasm replaced with very sterile and logical tone. "Prometheus."

As the name Prometheus echoed in the ears of the party, the room seemed to go silent. Expressions of shock and confusion contorted the faces of the human members of the group. Meanwhile, Robo and Atropos stood silent.

Then, "Prometheus..." Robo finally broke the air of silence. "How did you..."

"I know everything. I know of your penetrations into the Space-Time Continuum. I also know of the entity called Lavos. I know all," the voice answered.

"Lavos?!" Marle yelled out. "You know about Lavos?!"

"There is a logical explanation for my knowledge, however, I do not have the time to tell... Stories." The voice had changed in tone, seeming more menacing than before.

"Enough, Mother!" Atropos spoke up. She'd heard enough nonsense. "Something's wrong with your Operating System. Perhaps you've been infected with a virus. Or maybe there is excess..."

"Silence!" the voice cut Atropos off. "In another lifetime, you would have been my ally. In another time stream, I would have ruled," the voice was steadily becoming angrier and angrier. "But you have changed that."

"You don't know what you're saying. Let us help you," Atropos pleaded.

Then, an ominous click came from the direction of the door that led to the rest of Geno Dome.

Robo immediately checked the door. "She's locked the door. We can't enter the Dome."

"And you never will," the voice continued. "Especially, now that I am so close. Watch as I take this world hostage. Guardian, R64-Y, report in."

With that, the console's screen began to display the images of two robots who were very familiar to the group. The robots answered Mother Brain's command in unison, "Standing by..."

"Execute Dark Omen Program."

"Affirmative," the robots answered.

"This conversation has ended."

All of a sudden, the computer console in front of the group shut down. The conversation was clearly over.

"This is illogical. Why would Mother do this? I do not understand," Atropos said more to herself than to anyone else listening.

"Now, what do we do?" Marle wondered.

"We must figure out a way to get into this dome," Robo replied. "Come on, Lucca. Let's see if we can hack the door's security system."

Lucca nodded and the two went to work.

The R-Y Factory was a dimly lit place full of heavy machinery. Mainly, the assembly line was used to construct robots, however, it could easily be adapted to construct many other things. In the midst of the factory's daily production, two workers were chatting in a small room set aside from the rest of the R-Y Factory complex for worker breaks.

"Like I'm supposed to know everything that goes on. I mean, it's ridiculous!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," the other worker answered.

"Sometimes, she..." the other worker began to answer when a loud explosion cut him off. "What in the..."

"What was that?"

The answer to their question came in the form of a security guard whose limp body was thrown into the room by an unseen force.

"Is he?" one of the workers asked as the other checked the guard's vitals.

"Just barely."

Then the machinery suddenly stopped, creating an eerie silence.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know. Call for help."

"Right." As the worker answered, he quickly went over to a Comm Panel on the wall. But just before he reached it, a laser blast emerged from the darkness and pierced the panel's fine circuitry.

"That won't be necessary," said a robotic voice from the darkness.

"Jack! Just get down here, alright?! This is serious!" a frightened voice came over the Comm.

"No, it's not. You probably just clicked on the wrong icon or something," the technician said stopping momentarily to take a sip of his coffee. "If you're that worried, I'll go up and take a look. Okay?" No answer came. "Okay?!" Nothing. "Tom?! Are you there?" Still no answer came from the Comm. "Oh, for cryin' out loud!" With that, he exited the Employee Lounge. His destination was the Main Computer Control Center, elsewhere in the bowels of Arris Dome. But he did not take three steps out of the Lounge when a large mass of sentient machinery blocked his path. "There, you are! Do have any idea what's going on around here?"

"I have a very good idea," spoke Guardian as his Bits extended their laser cannons.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Carrying out my program," Guardian answered as his Bits opened fire.

"Owww!" Lucca yelled as she accidentally shocked herself on a loose wire. "Oh... We're never gonna hack this thing!" she continued, as she punched the Door Lock Keypad.

"There may be another way to gain entry to this Dome," Robo began.

"How?" Lucca asked while sucking on her shocked finger.

"R64-Y and Guardian, must have some sort of security access to this dome. We might be able to get such access from them."

"They're probably not going to give them up without a fight, huh?" Marle turned to Robo.

"That is a very logical possibility."

"So, what else is new," Marle said turning away from the group. Perhaps, excitement is not all it's cracked up to be Marle thought.

WHAT IS MOTHER UP TO? WILL OUR HEROES BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE INNER ROOMS OF THE DOME?

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF "RISE OF THE OMEN."

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