Chrono Trigger 1. The Hunt for Jerky

Hey people! This is my first stab at fanfic. Please R and R and have fun. Thanks!

**Disclaimer:** Only the pirates and the plot are mine. If I owned Chrono Trigger, I would know where Schala went after the game.

**Author's note:** I _do not_ know where Schala went after the game.

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**Chapter 1: The Hunt for Jerky**

Crono's mother put a hand to her chin and rubbed it thoughtfully.

"I don't think we _have _any Jerky left ."

"Noooo!" Marle wailed. "Five eras and not a stinkin' Jerky in the history of this place!"

"Eras?" Crono's mother looked puzzled.

"Errors," Lucca put in hastily (although the sentence wouldn't have made any sense anyway). "It's...um, Marle's dad's...ah, birthday, and Jerky's supposed to be his favourite food."

Crono rolled his eyes. Some cheap present.

"Oh... all right then. I'll look for you," Crono's mother said. She turned and made a business of looking for the food.

The three friends took seats at the table, looked at each other and sighed.

They were on their least life-threatening/perilous side-quest so far. Marle had gone to visit the king back home...seconds before another ear-splitting, castle-crumbling, earth-shattering massive fight erupted between father and daughter. Then the king went into a huff and went to his room to sulk, and the chancellor came, out of the blue, to Marle to tell her that her dad liked beef jerky.

Then it struck them appropriate to apologize with some beef jerky, so now they were on the not-so dangerous quest to find beef jerky as a present for the king.

Lucca glanced at Marle. "Don't worry, I'm sure that you and your dad will have patched things up by tonight."

"Oh dear, you've been fighting with him?" Crono's mother tsked-tsked, still rummaging around. Children these days. And a very familiar child was Marle...now where had she seen her before?

_No, I got a hole in my jeans. _"Kind of," Marle sighed.

"That's too bad, dear," The motherly green-haired lady said. "Especially on his birthday!"

Marle and Lucca bit back smiles. Crono found himself wondering how he was ever born to such a naive mommy.

"Never mind," Crono's mum continued. "I'm sure there's nothing a little present couldn't fix. Now Marle, dear, I'm terribly sorry, but we don't have any Jerky left."

Marle sighed miserably.

"You _could_ get some down at the Snail Stop down South," said Crono's ma, "but that's awfully, _awfully_ far away..."

Marle jumped up. "REALLY?"

"Yes I'm afraid so," Ma said sadly.

The princess darted out the door.

"Wait Marle!" Lucca shouted as she and Crono followed suit.

"What?"

"I'm not walking all the way to the South Continent," she said. Her voice was on stubborn mode.

Marle stared at Lucca. "Why not?"

"Well...it's across the other side of the equator."

"So?"

"So let's take the ferry."

Disbelief. "That _boat_ thing?"

Lucca scoffed. "No, the nymph down by the wharf."

Marle blinked, confused. What the heck? What nymph... oh.

"Lucca," she said with very forced calm. "It takes about eight seconds to walk down Zenan bridge and down to Porre Village. It takes about an HOUR by ferry. And it's a _total _waste of 10G."

Lucca sniffed. "I don't want to hear the soundtrack again."

"Soundtrack?!"

"You know...the music changes when we exit the village. And it's kind of depressing," Lucca said.

"It'll be over in eight seconds!" Marle exclaimed.

"How long eight seconds is depends on the sufferer," Lucca said sagely.

"Sufferer?!" Marle said in disbelief.

"I'll pay for the tickets, OK?" Lucca said desperately.

Marle thought about it.

.::::.

Somehow Crono ended up paying for the three of them.

The tangy ocean breeze whipped about the girls' hair. Marle seemed pretty happy for someone who didn't want to sit on the ferry for an hour.

"I wonder if there'll be dolphins?" Marle jumped up and down excitedly.

"Nah," Lucca said. "They ran out after the tuna crisis."

Crono and Marle blinked. "What tuna crisis?"

"The tuna ran out because of over-fishing," Lucca explained.

"And the dolphins starved?" Marle said, shocked.

Lucca sniffed miserably. "Yeah."

The foghorn blew, and the orange ferry crept out of the wharf.

Dolphins forgotten, Marle was positively flipping. "Waaai! I haven't done this in AGES. I forgot how fun it was."

Crono stood by the railing in mounting boredom. He could swear that the boat was snailing. IF he could swear. His mommy washed those naughty words away with soap years ago.

Like a slug struggling its way up a wall the boat made its way down south. About what seemed ten hours later the boat reached the southern part of the ocean, a tiny ant on the great blue picnic rug.

Crono was sleeping when it happened. Great dream too. Something about being the best swordsman in history. And being a king. With Marle in the other big chair in the big chamber...

"CRONOOOOO!"

"Wha-?"

He jerked awake, his dream gone in a puff of smoke. Lots of smoke. And great orange tongues of heat...

Fire!

Crono rushed across the deck in the fumes. "Marle!" He shouted.

"Fine then, make her priority!" Came a very indignant voice.

"Oh... ah... Lucca!"

He reached the other side of the boat. To his utmost amazement there it was; the biggest pirate ship he'd ever seen.

OK, it was the _first _pirate ship he'd ever seen.

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There. More chapters coming soon. Please tell me what you think! 


	2. Destiny Unfolds

Ahoy me hearties! I present to you my second stab at fanfic with a rusty cutlass. My apologies for the delay!

**Disclaimer:** I'm not supposed own Chrono Trigger, or something.

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**Chapter 2: Unfolding Destiny**

So frantic that he was completely unaware that he was actually talking for the first time since some time BC, Crono watched in despair as he watched his best friends get taken aboard the ship along with the other passengers through the flames.

"Lucca...?" He asked nobody in particular. There seemed to be nobody left on the burning ferry anyway.

"Shut yer porthole already!" A ferocious pirate with long straggly red hair that matched Crono's own growled at him, pointing a gun at Crono's head. "Ye'll hop aboard now."

Whatever. Crono drew his sword.

Quite an unusual battle scene, really. All around them, the flames roared, and their arena was sinking steadily as the boat plunged into the waters.

"Onto the ship, or ye'll speak ye last words." The pirate cocked the pistol.

"Hey! That's mine!" Lucca shrieked, struggling frantically as the other pirates bound her with thick ropes. High above, on the pirate ship, everyone had stopped to watch the commencing battle.

"Cat got yer tongue?" The pirate sneered.

_Ha, ha. Very funny. Wouldn't you be surprised._

"_Well?_" Red Head snickered. This lad was awfully stupid.

"Shut up," Crono mumbled.

The pirate smirked. "Pitiful landlubber."

**BANG.**

Crono was thrown into the flames. Marle and Lucca screamed. Everyone gasped.

Then... Crono's silhouetted figure emerged from the fire, unharmed. (Dramatic music.) The bullet had been fended off by Crono's Moon Armour.

"HA" Marle shouted. "You gotta wake up earlier than _that _to – "

"SSSHHH," The rest of the crew and captives hissed without taking their eyes off the fight.

Crono launched forward, pushed the pirate and grabbed the gun.

"Hey, that ain't just!" The pirate cursed, rubbing his backside.

Crono fumbled with the tiny gadget. Being a swordsman he wasn't all to sure on how to work these peashooter things. He decided to point the end at the pirate.

"I _said,_ 'THAT'S MINE!'"! Lucca hollered, to the excruciating earache of her captors. "CRONO! GIVE ME BACK MY GUN!"

Crono could hear her shouts dimly over the raging of the fire. And he heard a very faint _clunk_, much like somebody being whacked over the head for not shutting up.

"Yer pointing the wrong end at me," Red-Head said, amused.

Oh. Crono was about to turn the gun the around...but no. What if he shot himself? Better not risk it.

But maybe Red-Head was genuinely trying to teach Crono how to blast his head off.

To everyone's annoyance Crono turned the gun around again.

This would have continued for another thirty minutes had not a sudden lurch tilted the ferry.

"Whoa-!" The two fighters slid into the railing. Crono fired by accident, and a loud but dying "AAAHHHhhh...!" erupted from the spectators area.

The boat was now sinking rapidly. The red-haired pirate turned and clambered onto the ship by the rope as the water splashed around his knees.

A retreat? Crono punched the air. Another victory counting towards his ever-climbing experience points and –

"CRONO!"

The remaining bits of the boat sunk into the depths of the sea, Crono and all.

.::::.

"You stupid –_bleeping-_ pirates!" Marle bawled. "YOU KILLED HIM! Pass the salt, please," she added.

"Shut up will ye," Red-Head snarled. "Stupid lad gave me good cuts enough to last till Davy Jone claims."

The unfortunate captives were seated around a rather grand table, eating with the pirates' supervision. With fancy candles and a large chandelier over their heads. The pirates had found that nobody was going to work on an empty stomach, and that nobody was going to eat in a filthy cabin.

Lucca passed a dainty shaker to her friend.

"This is good," Marle confessed. "What is it?"

"The finest dolphin," a blue haired pirate leered.

Everybody froze. Marle stared at her plate in horror.

Well, nearly everybody froze. Lucca kept on eating until Marle elbowed her.

"OW! _What_?"

"You're eating dolphin, you idiot!"

Lucca looked both offended and disgusted, and it wasn't because Marle had made her spill soggy green stuff all over herself. "_Two things, _Marle. One, I am a vegetarian. As a vegetarian I took great pains to pick the green food. _Secon-_"

"That was moldy dolphin," Blue-Head snickered.

Lucca stopped chewing.

You have to hand it to her, Marle mused. Even with a plateful of rotten seafood in her stomach and half a plateful all over her lap, Luccakeeps her cool.

"But dolphins have been extinct for years," Lucca said faintly.

The pirates groaned. Blue-Head scowled. "Ye truly had ter spoil the joke, ye?"

Lucca went bright red. Machinery or joke, she ALWAYS had to blow something. "Oh...erm...well, they're not _that _extinct..."

"They're not? Oh my gosh! Lucca, you had me so upset!" Marle laughed, relieved.

Blue-Head was about to revive the joke by telling her that in which case, these dishes were certainly _not _dolphin-safe, when he spotted the sparkling pendant.

"Ye!" He whipped out a long cutlass.

Everyone froze again. The pirate lifted the blue pendant on the tip of the knife and gazed at it.

"What do you want?" Marle gasped. She wasn't too happy having a silver blade right next to her neck.

Red-Head rose from his seat and stared.

"'Tis the engraving," he said, his eyes glittering. "Ye be the One!"

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DUN DUN DUN! 

Alright I bet you think the ending was cheesy. Well good! It's supposed to be. Or the twists in the plot won't work out... heh heh.

Thank you people for your reviews. You guys are great!


	3. The Past Returns, and Then Some

Hi y'all! I've decided to shorten some chapters to (hopefully) speed up some updates. .

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Crono, or Marle, or Lucca. Human slavery has been abolished. Nor do I own Queen Zeal, or Princess Schala. Or Lavos (Darn it) or any other thing you may find in the game.

And my first dedication ever!

_To Rummed Mavis, Goth, Scallywag and the Hobbit. May your days of pirating never end (except for the Hobbit, 'cos her's never started. In which case I take LOTR into credit). _****

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**Chapter 3: The Past Returns, and Then Some**

All of the prisoners stared in bewilderment and puzzlement. Marle voiced their thoughts.

"The One what?"

"Ye be in the bloodline of Zeal," Blue-Head said softly.

"Who?"

"Zeal."

"_What_?" Marle wasn't sure she heard right.

"As in Queen Zeal?" Lucca dropped her fancy pure silver fork with a ringing clatter. "What do you pirates know about –"

Then it hit her. Like, literally. Not for the first time another _clunk _made another dent in Lucca's headset. .

"Shut up," Blue-Head scowled. He turned his steely eyes onto the princess. "Ye be me great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's sister's great-great-great-great-great-grand-lass."

"I'm related to you?" Marle said faintly. "A pirate? With _blue hair_?"

But of course. Queen Zeal had had blue hair. And Princess Schala's pendant, handed down for many generations, was the same pendant Marle wore.

"'Tis natural," Blue-Head said smugly, twirling his long blue locks. Then he got serious. "Ye been a landlubber all this time?"

"That's royal landlubber to you, Blue-Head." Marle said warily. She wasn't too keen on hugging her distant cousin yet.

"Hey!" Blue-Head scowled. "I have a name, ye know..."

"What do you guys _want_?" Lucca spoke up. "So Marle's your distant cousin. What do you want to do?"

Blue-Head looked thoughtful. "Aye...We ne'er knew there be me cous'n aboard the ferry. We just yearned for more...more pirates."

"Slaves," Red-Head said bluntly. Blue-Head looked sheepish.

"Well, catch _me_ serving a bunch of sea-rats," Marle said icily. "Even if you _are _my great-great-great – "

Red-Head looked at her coldly. "Now our plans will change... be changed already! We want yer pendant for the war."

"What war? War with who?"

"Creatures of fathoms below," Red-Head whispered. He tried to look eerie by chandelier-light, but it didn't work.

"_Sea monsters_?" Marle said, aghast.

"Well they'd hardly be fish," Lucca said impatiently. "How is Marle's pendant supposed to help?"

"The Stone of the Zeal Ruler," Red-Head droned, "Shall defeat the Sons of her brother, whom this world subjects to, with its powers left by her daughter."

"You've lost me," Marle said, drawing a family tree on the table with bread sauce.

"Your pendant can snuff Lavos's kids," Lucca said irritably.

"What! Lavos Juniors don't live underwater!"

All the pirates exchanged glances. This girl had a lot to learn. Like some manners, Red-Head thought crossly, as the bread sauce ran out and Marle threw the bottle and it hit him on the head.

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Thanks again for your reviews, people! Any more feedback is strictly encouraged. :P 


	4. Loner

No, I did not abandon the computer. I merely lost it. (Track of time, not the comp)

**Disclaimer:** Chrono Trigger is not mine, which is stupid, because I have the game. .

_Dedicated to Kayla the koala, Spot the giraffe and Fluffy the sheep. _

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**Chapter 4: Loner**

_Mini-prologue_

_Crono ran to his mother, who was sitting on the red couch, rigid with shock. He looked at her curiously._

"_Why are you freezed, Mommy?"_

_He noticed a piece of paper on the ground, by her feet where she had dropped it. He picked it up, and joyfully ripped it in two. The sound made him laugh._

"_Yayyy!"_

_Then he ripped it into quarters...then eighths...then tiny, tiny pieces. _

_The four-year-old threw them everywhere, laughing and shouting happily. His mother didn't even stop him. She just watched as the last message her husband left her fluttered to the ground like a million snowflakes. _

.::::.

"Poke him," Crono heard a voice urge.

"Poking won't wake him."

Crono opened his eyes, barely wide enough to slide a piece of paper through.

Rough-looking people were gathered around, staring menacingly down at him.

Crono shut his eyes again.

"Ha! No use pretending," said a cold voice. "Get up."

_Darn it. _Crono sat up. The people backed away a little.

He was on the deck of some kind of ship.

The pirate ship! It all came back. Crono reached for his sword – and grabbed empty air.

They had taken his stuff!

"No use trying anything," said the voice. It belonged to a young but vicious looking pirate with knotty blond hair. He leered at Crono. "Know where y'are?"

Duh, considering they'd burnt the ferry and taken his best friends. Crono seldom wasted words.

The blond pirate smirked when he didn't answer. "Welcome aboard the _Mutiny_."

"... " What did the name matter?

The blond pirate smirk became more prominent. "Not one for words, are ya? Just another of many fools upon this ship."

The other pirates snickered, each hoping the captain wasn't talking about him.

Crono frowned. It didn't pay for people to think he was dumb. Say something useful, now.

"Where's Marle?" Crono demanded.

"Ah. So we can talk, now!" The blond pirate jeered.

"I'm not mute -" Crono began defensively.

The blond pirate slapped him on the shoulder. "Good! I can finally tell someone to shut up. So you can shut up now, and get on with your work. I've assigned you to deckswabbing."

He turned away. Crono rubbed his forehead. Some pirate. The others looked at each other, smirked and they, too, continued with their daily lives.

Crono decided to go look for Marle himself.

Oh yeah, and Lucca.

He wandered around all the cabins, over every deck, up one mast and down another. No sign of his friends. Or anyone else who had been on the ferry.

Where? Where? Where?

"Get back to work," a girl snapped at him while carrying what looked like a truckload of laundry in her arms.

"Where... are the others?" Crono asked.

"Working," the girl replied.

"The ones who were on the ferry," Crono said quietly.

The girl rose her hard blue-grey eyes to his. "You were the only one. Pity that... would have been more workers 'round this place."

So it was true. Crono was alone, save a couple of sea-bandits and seagulls overhead on this harsh, lonely ship.

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Oooh, depressing.

I will add the other characters from the game too, soon. Keep reviewing!!!!!! :D


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Chrono Trigger, Adventure, Humor