Panic. "How long have I been here? Where is this place?
Am I dead?" Crono's consciousness floated in a cold, empty, black, and lonely place. An endless cycle of questions.
"How much time has passed? Do I still exist?" But there were never answers, only silence.
He began to fear never seeing his friends again; never seeing her again.
Every so often, he tried to open his eyes or to raise his arms or to speak, and every time a wave of desperation overtook his consciousness when he re-realized the absence of his body. Despair. He began to wish he could just let go. Let go of this consciousness and drift into oblivion... Could he let go?
"Wha~? Who's there? What's happening to meeee?!" Hope? A shock of pain shook through his entire body. His body?!
Suddenly he became aware that he had returned to his body! He felt pain, throbbing pain from his head to his toes... He slowly cracked opened his eyes, light beamed in and stung his retnas. He put a hand to his eyes and squinted his vision back to normal. Surprise. Relief. Marle, Lucca, and Magus were standing over him. "Crono! You're alive!!" He opened his mouth to reply but the pain and shock of being ripped from the void back into reality caught up with him before he could form a word and he collapsed in a heap.
When he woke, he was slumped against a tree on a mountain peak somewhere cold. He opened his eyes... "Am I dreaming?" he wondered.
Crono opened his eyes and looked at her. She couldn't help but smile. Her heart skipped a beat. Elation. She had waited too long for this."Crono! Welcome back Crono!!"
Crono looked up at her, disbelief painted his face. Her feelings welled up inside her, and she flung herself down into him and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her cheek against his. After a long moment, she let her face slide into his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
She spoke soft and unsteady, "We knew this day would come. You mustn't...," but she hesitated and her words gave way to tears. Her tiny frame began to heave as she wept. In that moment, he wrapped his arms around her and in return she hugged him tighter. She cried for relief. She cried for joy. She cried for what she had almost lost forever, him.
As she sobbed into his chest, he fought back his own tears and wrapped both his arms around her quivering frame.
As sighed his relief her embrace grew softer, warmer. He closed his eyes and savored this moment. Joy. Love.
fin