Chrono Cross plot summarized

A creation of the kingdom of Zeal, producing immense power and wealth by utilizing the power of an extraterrestial invader called Lavos. Assumed destroyed along with the Ocean Palace, by Crono's Red Knife, though in reality, thrown into a dimensional vortex.

Schala (Sara) is the daughter of Queen Zeal, a ruler in the year -12000, of a magical empire powered by the Mammon Machine.

When the ocean palace in which the Mammon Machine resided was destroyed, Schala was sucked into a dimensional vortex along with the Lavos-powered Mammon Machine. Schala and Lavos became unified into one even more powerful entity that would evolve into the Devourer of Time. Filled with hatred and sadness of Lavos, half of Schala's mind became set on destroying all of existence. Yet at the same time, the other half of her mind desired to save the universe and to be rescued herself. As Schala fell through the time gate in this condition, she heard young Serge's crying echoing through time.

Led by the pitiful crying the young Serge made as the panther demon's poison took hold of him... Princess Schala traveled ten thousand years in time to try and make contact with this dimension. This caused a raging magnetic storm that resulted in FATE's system malfunction, which led Serge to the Frozen Flame.

Before the destructive mindset could become dominant, she cloned herself and sent her copy into this dimension. Schala left her baby daughter-clone with her ancient pendant, possessing magical powers. This was to safeguard her daughter-clone in life-and-death situations. The pendant would rewind time a little, sending her daughter-clone into a safer point in the immediate past. That clone was Kid.

Belthasar was one of the three gurues living in the Magical kingdom of zeal. However, one day they were all banished into different times, Belthasar to circa year 2300.

In the original timeline, he developed a time machine there sacrificing his last years of sanity. The heroes of Chrono Trigger used the time machine to retroactively destroy Lavos, which had centuries ago destroyed the world into which Belthasar arrived.

In the altered timeline, Belthasar founded Chronopolis, and set foundation to Project Kid.

Reptites were a sentient species competing with the primitive humans. Without the crashing of Lavos which made the Earth climate unsuitable for reptites (and also the fact that Lavos crashed right into the reptite "city"), they would have been the prominent species on Earth. It is also possible that Crono's victorious battle with Azala in the prehistoric times decided the tiebreaker between those two species.

Lavos is an extraterrestial leech species whose lifecycle is to travel through space, crash into a fruitful planet, absorb its resources for millions of years. In this state it can be harnessed as a practically limitless energy source. After millions of years, it surfaces in an event that destroys the surface of the entire planet like a thousand atomic bombs.

Sometime in the process it produces offspring, but how those leave the planet, is not explained. Neither is the reason for which it devastates the surface.

Lavos is responsible for the win of humans over the reptites. However, Crono & co. beat Lavos, causing it to blink out from the entire history since year -12000, but somehow it survived at least partially and merged with the poor girl Schala. This union, existing outside habitable realities, is powerful enough to devour existence itself (huh?) and must be terminated. It can be achieved through the means of a combination of certain elemental resonances (huh?) and the Chrono Cross, a dragonian artifact.

Chronopolis is a time research center created by a civilization from the future, year 2300, under the lead of the guru Belthasar. It is created solely for carrying out Project Kid.

Project Kid was the time control project Belthasar planned out. The founding of Chronopolis, the Time Crash, and the battle between FATE and the Dragon Gods... The whole project existed to lead Serge to possessing the Chrono Cross and saving Schala, and consequently the entire multiverse.

Kid's role in the project is to retroactively tamper time so as to make the whole project possible.

• Kid is to travel back ten years in time to safe young Serge from drowning.
• Kid is to summon Serge (who now exists due to the saving) into the other world as he spoke with Leena on Opassa beach.

FATE is a sentient supercomputer that runs the Chronopolis. It was responsible of several things:

• Using the power of the Frozen flame, sealed the Dragon God's power by dividing them into weaker entities and making them sleep.
• Terraformed the El-Nido archipelago by creating islands there, and populating those islands with brainwashed scientists from the Chronopolis.
• Manipulated the inhabitants of El-Nido with devices called "Record of FATE", in order to ensure that any actions that would compromise the future where Chronopolis is created, will not happen.
• After being locked out from the Frozen flame by the Prometheus circuit (access now only granted to Serge), assimilated the body of Wazuki, transformed it into Serge's worst fear at that time (a large feline), and
• Steals the Dragon Tear from Another's Guldove and uses it to swap bodies with Serge.

As FATE was locked out from the Frozen flame, the six dragons created a seventh one, Harle, "dark moon dragon", to attempt to gain the possession of the Frozen flame for themselves.

As FATE and Harle both had the same priority (breaking the Prometheus circuit that only allowed Serge with the access to Frozen flame), Harle temporarily joined forces with FATE (now as Lynx).

Their first plan was to abduct Lucca, a scientific genius from the past who had a hand in designing both FATE and Prometheus, to break the Prometheus circuit. However, their plan didn't work out.

Their revised plan was to wait until Serge appears instead. FATE calculated, that one day, Serge will cross the dimensions and try to make contact with the Frozen flame. After all, the thing needed to access the system was Serge's body.

However, Harle's plan backfired, and FATE ended up possessing Serge's body instead. Harle then joined with Serge (now as Lynx), who could still have possibility of accessing the Frozen flame and stop FATE.

During her travelling with Serge, Harle developed feelings of love towards Serge.

Eventually, Serge regains his own body (or a copy of it anyway), and sets out to Chronopolis. After Serge defeats FATE, Kid, despite warnings from Harle, who out of love towards Serge did not want the dragons to regain power, for this would mean the demise of Serge, and the humanity, proceeds to steal the Frozen Flame, unintentionally enabling the sealed dragons to regain their power and unite. At that moment, Harle has no choice, but takes the Frozen flame, and departs, never to be seen again (unless the player uses the Chrono Cross to conjure up Harle from a past completion of game using Newgame+).

Harle possesses the same body structure as Kid, and many other traits as well (such as a prediction by a fortune teller). According to the game creators, this was no coincidence, but no explanation was written to the game.

In the Home World (the parallel world created by Kid's saving Serge), FATE (Lynx) and Harle had travelled to the Dead Sea, accompanied by Lord Viper and his Devas, but they get frozen in time, because they did not have the Time Arbiter (Serge) with them.

Dinopolis was a hyper advanced city from an alternative future, where the descendants of a reptite Azala lived in close relation to Earth.

In the Time crash, both Chronopolis and Dinopolis were pulled back in time to the same dimension, where a fight ensued, and due to FATE's utilizing of Frozen flame, Chronopolis came out victorious, and the powers of the dragons were sealed.

The dragons are splices of the "mother brain" of Dinopolis, called "Dragon God", a biological organism comparable to a supercomputer. It was spliced into six parts by FATE at the defeat of the Dinopolis and forced to sleep (and somehow, scattered to the two parallel universes, huh?).

The dragons call humans the "sons of Lavos"; for it was Lavos who destroyed the reptites, and who empowered the "primitive apes", that is humans.

In the year 2400, a "counter-time" experiment performed in Chronopolis causes Chronopolis to be thrown into a time vortex, where Lavos pulls it 10000 years into past, to year -7600. Somehow, Dinopolis was also pulled to that same moment, apparently as a counterbalance by the actions of the planet itself.

When Kid rescues Serge from drowning, the resulting split of timelines causes the new timeline's Chronopolis, when it arrives to the past from Time Crash, to become intermingled with a few timelines that don't exist anymore (such as the bleak future destroyed by Crono &co.). Chronopolis is destroyed and the mess becomes the Dead Sea. FATE appoints Leena's father (who accompanied Wazuki on their trip to Chronopolis), Miguel, as a guardian of the Dead Sea to prevent anyone from gaining possession of the Frozen flame of that world.

When Serge defeats Miguel, FATE destroys the entire Dead Sea.

Serge is just a regular kid, born in Arni village in year 1003, around the same time as Lucca & co. start the orphanage in which Kid is also adopted. In 1006, when Serge was 3 years old, he was attacked by a panther demon, and fatally injured. His father, Wazuki, was desperate for help, and seeked the Sage of Marbule for ways of saving his son. However, due to a heavy storm (caused by Schala), he landed in Chronopolis instead.

In Chronopolis, Serge got recognized by the Prometheus circuit, which granted Serge the only access in the universe to the Frozen flame; and the Frozen flame, which healed him instantly.

Four years later, at the age of 9, a tsunami strikes, and Serge drowns and dies. However, due to (older) Kid arriving from the future to save Serge, a new parallel universe was created where Serge was saved. However, in this parallel universe, Chronopolis gets intermingled with several timelines and becomes a dysfunctional Dead Sea, and hence cannot control the events of this world.

Ten years later, Serge meets with Leena on the Opassa beach for talking about their future together, when (older) Kid pulls him through to the original dimension (Another World), where he is dead.

However, because FATE (as Lynx) had predicted that such event will happen, he had already sent the dragoon Karsh and his underlings to capture Serge and bring him to Lynx. Due to the interference by (younger) Kid, their attempt failed, and Serge could roam free.

However, eventually Serge sought Lynx by his own, due to (not subtle) persuation from (younger) Kid, who still had traumas from Lynx's actions in the orphanage where they had tried to capture Lucca from.

Serge confronts Lynx in the dragonian temple atop Mount Pyre, where Lynx had brought the dragonian artifact Dragon Tear. As Serge stares to the Dragon Tear, still confused by Lynx's words inciding doubt of his own being, he is overwhelmed by the arficats power and his mind and Lynx's mind get swapped: FATE (Lynx) ends in Serge's body, and Serge ends in Lynx's body.

As FATE has no longer use for Serge (as Lynx), he sends him into a dimensional vortex. In the dimensional vortex, Serge (as Lynx) confronts Sprigg, an inhabitant of that vortex, and Harle, who had came looking for Serge (as it was not her best interests to have FATE in control of the Frozen flame again, and she wants it for herself).

Serge goes to the Dead Sea, only to find that the FATE in that world is dysfunctional, and that the Frozen flame is destroyed as FATE of Another World (somehow?) decides not to give access to Serge & co. after they kill the Flame's guardian, Miguel. Dead Sea is destroyed.

Serge & co. are rescued by the Sky Dragon, who also wishes to have FATE destroyed, and hints them of their next move.

As the Frozen flame is now destroyed, Serge is able to travel back to the Another world, where he gets promised the Dragon Tear if he beats all the six dragons.

Serge proceeds to beat the six dragons, and acquires both Tears of Dragon. Meanwhile, Harle sees that her plan isn't going to involve Serge anymore, and goes away.

Serge goes goes to Mount Pyre yet again and stares into the tear. The power of the Tear literally rebirths Serge from a single cell into the body he had before FATE took it.

After that, Serge goes to Chronopolis to kill DarkSerge (FATE) who is clearly evil. FATE has been entertaining her life as a human, and wishes to learn more. A battle ensues, and FATE is killed. The six dragons are now free from their control by FATE, and reunite and steal the Frozen Flame. The Dinopolis arises from the sea.

Serge, getting acquianted with the Dragon God's plan to massacre the entire human world as a retribution for their sins to the planet, does not want the Dragon God to succeed in that, and goes to beat him. On route, he learns of the Elements of nature, and meets with Belthasar, who has been preserving a special nook of timespace for the sole purpose of meeting with him and doing some plot exposition. Serge & co. beat the Dragon God (who somehow had been corrupted or assimilated by Time Devourer huh?), and now all that remains, is to free Schala of Lavos's control.

To do that, Serge goes and merges the Dragon Tears into a Chrono Cross, which is a musical resonator or something that can restore Schala into herself and destroy Lavos for good, when a certain sequence of elements is activated in succession.

Kid is Schala's Lavos-free daughter-clone, created so that she can work out a way to save Schala from succumbing to Lavos and destroying all of life and time.

She was "born" around the same time Serge was (1003), and adopted and raised by Lucca Ashtear in her orphanage. When Harle and Lynx invade in 1006, the orphanage burns and Kid has no choice but to set out her own way of living. She becomes a bandit who vows to avenge Lynx for killing Lucca.

In 1017, Kid meets with Serge who has just travelled across dimensions, and sets out to journey with him. She hopes his paths will lead her to Lynx (and the rumoured priceless Frozen flame artifact).

She eventually meets Lynx, but things don't go as she planned, and she is mortally poisoned. She survives, and continues her journey of avenging Lynx. Atop the Mount Pyre, she meets Lynx, but unfortunately, she is deceived as Serge and Lynx swap bodies. As FATE (Serge) urges her to kill Serge (Lynx), she hesitates because something is wrong, and then FATE (DarkSerge) stabs her in a dramatic fashion. As she recuperates, she has no memory of the incident, and continues going with Serge (who is really FATE), still set on killing Lynx (though Lynx is Serge now.)

She does not get a chance to kill Lynx's body, but she meets Serge again in Chronopolis, as FATE fights her final battle.

When FATE dies, Kid awakens briefly, and is confused what to do. She falls into a coma, one which he awakens from only when Serge uses the power of the Masamune to revisit her past and thwart off Lynx's and Harle's attempt to snatch Lucca.

Right prior to the destruction of Lavos, she is informed about her role in Project Kid.

Wazuki is Serge's father. When Serge was mortally injured by a panther demon, he set out on sail together with Leena's father, Miguel, to meet the Sage of Marbule who could supposedly heal the kid. However, due to a storm, they arrive in Chronopolis instead. in Chronopolis, Serge makes contact with the Frozen flame, is instantly healed, and Wazuki is assimilated by FATE. Miguel stays behind in the chaotic turn of events, and Wazuki gets safely home along with Serge.

In the passage of months, FATE takes control of Wazuki's shocked mind, and turns his appearance into child Serge's worst fear, a large feline. FATE, now as Lynx, sets out to find ways to control the Frozen flame again, and joins temporarily forces with Harle, who has similar goals.