Im sure this will be lost in the "dead sea" of comments here, and doubly so due to the inactivity,
but I had to create an account just to flesh out how the timelines occur in Chrono Cross, and more
specifically, to explain due to time-continuity how and why exactly the dead sea exists.
The first misconception that Im finding here is that everyone seems to think that Serge's survival
in "Home" is what leads to the Day of Lavos which leads to apocalypse. It was not only Serge's
survival that ensured the future destruction, it was his contact with the flame itself as well.
When Serge dies in "Another", the status as the arbiter of the flame is lost, and FATE is able to
regain control of the Flame. This is why FATE, and FATE alone wants Serge dead (and attempts to
murder him in both dimensions). It is the only way to ensure the survival of the timeline that
creates Chronopolis in the first place. FATE was in fact, originally tasked to monitor both "Home"
and "Another" as evidenced in the 4th floor observation room of Chronopolis. But why would this
be? Multiple things happened across several points in time simultaneously to set this in motion.
As Schala became the TD, she heard Serge's crying and made contact with his time period
(Presumably in an attempt to save him - which she technically did by creating the magnetic storm)
and sent her clone forward to act for her, and possibly even to try to save herself, given her
knowledge that she would eventually deteriorate. Belthasar, who came in contact with Kid, learned
of the TD, and set his own plan "Project Kid" into motion in order to spawn the events that would
eventually dis-join Schala from Lavos. This plan led to Chronopolis, which led to the Time Crash,
which led to the Chronopolis existing in the past. Belthasar references this when he says "You may
think I really blew it, but in fact it was my finest hour!" (when you encounter him in the
dimensional distortion in Terra Tower) Something overlooked in the posts Ive browsed through is
how the Time Crash landed Chronopolis -preciscely- in the point in time necessary to create the
events that it does. Divine Providence? Probably not. That crafty Belthasar had the whole thing
planned out. He planned the time crash to specifically land Chronopolis -exactly- where it needed
to be. So back to the original point, Belthasar developed FATE to monitor TWO dimensions, because
he had specifically planned to create a dimension where the Day of Lavos still occurs, so that
FATE would try to stop it, thus provoking the entire chain of events that leads through the game,
leading to the gaining of the Chrono Coss, being at Opassa beach at exactly the right time, IN
possession of a time egg, and with all of the knowledge AND motivation to not just wang the heck
out of the TD, but to try to free Schala. That is afterall what the entire plan was to bring
about. this again is supported by the dialogue between Serge and the cast of CT on Opassa beach
right before the final fight.
I would also like to refute the Armageddon branch theory, by pointing out that the dimensions are
less like separate dimensional spaces, and are more like fluctuating variations of the same
physical space. As Belthasar himself states, "Its merely a problem of possibilities, and is only
stabilized by the perspective of the observer" If Chrono Time travels from "Pre Distortion" to
"post Distortion", there will actually exist 2 Chronos. 1 in each dimension.(with the observer
being serge and co) They occupy exactly the same physical space, with exactly the same space time
coordinates relative to the linear timeline. This means that in the history of both worlds, Chrono
Time Travels, and in both Worlds he appears in the future as well as the past.
The Flame itself is actually a peice of Lavos, again referenced several times in the course of the
game. It is not so much that Serge is alive in "Home" that dooms the future, it is the connection
with the Flame (peice of Lavos) that dooms the future. Now that all the groundwork is laid, time
to explain the dead sea (this isnt confusing at all is it guys and gals?)
Lets look at it like this:
The Chronopolis exists in both timelines before the dimensional split (Obviously, since the Time
Crash landed it early enough for Serge to come into contact with the flame/lavos)
At the very moment FATE lost control of the future (By being permanantly robbed of the flame),
which is the very moment Kid saves Serge, the thread that is the timeline forks. The first fork
leads to HOME and the second fork to ANOTHER. To an individual observer, stabilizing the
perspective of their own timeline, nothing has changed at all. Time has simply gone on as normal.
The merchant in Arni has NO idea that another timeline exists, and because she cannot experience
it, that timeline, future and all is stabilized. The same happens in another. That same merchant,
now in the timeline for ANOTHER has no idea the "home" split occurs, and the future course is set.
This is why the dimensional split even occurs. Its not a separation of the physical space, its
merely a fluctuating variation of the same initial substructure. If Serge was the ONLY observer in
the timeline, there would have been no split in the first place (although this is pretty much
impossible, because pretty much any kind of matter in existence qualifies as an "observer" not
just sentient beings). Likewise, without Serge (or really any observer at all) being able to
experience both splits independently, there would be no split either. As time forks, each new line
is created all the way to the end, with previous possibilites being discarded into the DBT. The
original line "another" is not altered in any way. Chronopolis still exists in the future, in
exactly the same capacity, and thus the future is preserved by FATE. In HOME however, something
occurs with the flame, and FATE's inability to access its power. More on the theories on how that
occurs in a bit. Since the dead sea IS the future in the current time coordinates (props to the
person that worded that all correctly. You were dead on with that), as soon as Chronopolis ceases
to exist in the future, it ceases to exist in the present, but more importantly, the time crash
cannot have occurred to have sent that future time-space into the present. (due to everything
being all Lavos-killed and such)The resulting paradox literally "broke" time, causing a snapshot
of the time period filling the time-space of the timecrash as the time periods realigned
themselves into their new futures. Everything isnt so much frozen in this point as it is
completely devoid of time. This is because time cant exist without a vector, and no vector can
exist with only a single point. Miguel I believe references that nothing ages in this place. How
can you age with no time? When the Flame is destroyed in Home by FATE, this is where I believe
people might have it wrong. Destroying the flame destroys the possibility of the Day of Lavos,
since contact with the flame is ultimately what leads to his appearance. However, with no flame,
no time crash occurs either, since no experiment on releasing it to lock level D happens. Now,
without the time crash as a point of reference in the continuum, and with the snapshot-ted future
being thrown in the garbage can beyond time, the future realigns itself AGAIN, eliminating not
only that space time represented in the space the time crash created, but also the time crash
space itself, leading to a full on NON-paradox (crisis averted), and a normal display of the sea
of eden as it would appear if Chronopolis never even existed in the first place. But why oh why
are the Fate distortions there? This is because of "Another"'s FATE. Since FATE was originally
designed to monitor 2 separate timelines at once, it obviously needed a way to interact with the
other timeline to gain information. Originally, FATE from "another" communicated directly with
FATE from "Home" and vise-versa through a hardwired connection. Look at it as a hardwire from one
timeline to the other, specifically engineered for the purpose of data collection. However, once
the HOME Chronopolis simply ceased to have ever even existed(or would ever exist by extension),
that line was severed. I believe there is a reference to this in the Flame's room before you
defeat FATE. Where DarkSerge/Lynx/FATE talks about how very very vexing it was to try to do it's
job and monitor the timeline when it lost all contact with the other dimension. Once the line was
severed,it was effectively a "live wire" and available for use for travel.
So lastly, why does the Flame/Lavos peice bring Lavos back around? There are lots of possibilities
here, but I think it is most likely that the reptites/dragonians have something to do with it. The
dragon god has taken the flame in Terra Tower, but not destroyed it already. After defeating the
Dragon God, Kid mentions that "I see we are all the same. Everything wants to be more powerful".
This leads to the thought that, the original timeline, leading to, but not including Chronopolis,
did not have Dinopolis OR the flame or even an El Nido and therefore ultimately achieved the state
of Chronopolis and the Time Crash. In the timeline leading up to and including the Timecrash, with
Chronopolis present, Dinopolis and the flame are present, but FATE keeps it all in check by not
having Serge around to free it up for the taking by the Dragons. In the timeline where Serge
inadvertently locks FATE out of the flame, and Dinopolis is present, AND the flame is present, the
Dragon god ultimately gains the flame, and through it, calls Lavos, likely in some kind of scene
similar to Zeal, and presto bingo-armageddon. Since Lavos is effectively called out of sequence
from the original CT, the actions of the original CT may not have occurred the same way. If the
Dragons wipe humans off the face of the planet (as they probably could and would with the flame)
there would be no Bangor dome in the future to warn our young adventurers of the apocalypse. Or
maybe there would be a Dino version of it, but Lucca doesnt have experience powering up biological
machines, only mechanical machines -_-. At any rate, that changes the timeline drastically enough
that Lavos may never get defeated. So why doesnt the space in the sea of eden change to reflect
doom and destruction after FATE is shut down, even though the dragon god gets ahold of the flame
and all the bad things happen? Easy. Serge. Just as Serge is the destroyer of the HOME dimension,
he is the savior of ANOTHER dimension. In the ANOTHER timeline, Serge defeats the dragon god and
stops all the badness from happening. Lavos still only exists in the DBT. There probably exists
another timeline where Serge FAILS to kill the dragon god, and Lavos comes out and eats everyone.
Since we dont have the perspective on that timeline however, we cant stabilize it into a reality
One final final thing to tie up. Why can only Serge travel the distortions. Its not brainwaves or
mysitcal power or anything crazy. The answer is Belthasar. Belthasar set up the entire plan with
Chronopolis, Set up FATE to create El Nido, and ultimately had El Nido created with a lot of
"deposits" of things around the archipelago. If all of the records of fate were distributed, why
not some fate distortions? Belthasar, simply put, set it all up so that exactly what would need to
happen, would happen. He is a master of time-ology(is that a word?) That is probably why he
traveled back to this time period in his little 1 seater epoch. He needed to monitor his
experiment. Chronopolis wasnt the experiment though. Serge was the experiment, and Belthasar
provided him specifically with all of the tools necessary to bring about the saving of Schala. On
Belthasar's orders, Kid uses her amulet to call Serge the first time (why he travels without the
amulet - she opens the gate from the other side) This is explained by Lucca on Opassa beach. Her
amulet is the "schala's pendant" from CT. The dreamstone that opens the first portal, and the rock
that resonates with lavos. (mammon machine anyone?) Since Serge has come into contact with Lavos,
stone resonates with him as well, and creates the wormhole and the point of least resistance. I
dont think its a matter of rescrambling DNA or brainwaves, but Lynx/Serge's venture into the dead
sea puts him in proximity to Lavos again. Odds are high that Miguel, as well as any party members
that are present at Leene's Bell, could now use the distortion as well with the amulet. The FATE
distortions in the sea of Eden are a different story however. Those are specifically created by
FATE and therefore directly controlled by FATE's programming, and by the time Serge gets his body
back, FATE needs him, because all other attempts to remove the lock have been unsuccessful. Once
FATE is out for the count, there is no block to free access to FATE's distortions, and of course
Serge is back in his own Lavos tainted body to use the Opassa beach gate. Notice how close the
Opassa beach gate is to the Lavos DBT gate? Coincidence? There are no coincidences when you are
playing the time and space game.
Viola.
And now my brain hurts. Time for bed
(PS - Double Spaced to avoid extra damage from my lvl 7 tech WallOfText. Its black element in case you were wondering.)
