The Zeal Saga

[Luminaire]

I decided to outline what will be the rest of Part II, with the goals of making sure the appropriate exposition is provided and pacing the plot appropriately. The work-in-progress can be found in the post that follows. I will revise it a few times over the course of the week, and begin actually writing the scenes on Thursday*.

I really want this part of the story to be outstanding, so I'm looking for any help you can give. Suggestions, corrections, rewrites - all strongly encouraged. There are no restrictions other than the total length of Part II should be reasonably close to that of Part I (i.e. 65-75 scenes, hopefully translating into about 110 pages of script).



*Here's hoping twenty hours in a car is a good time for writing.

[Luminaire]

ACT XV

Scene 49: The party arrives in 12000 BC to find themselves in the midst of a blizzard! They find shelter in a skyway and discover a magical elevator

Scene 50: to arrive at the kingdom of Zeal. They marvel at the utopian paradise and make their way to Enhasa.

Scene 51:In Enhasa, they overhear a discussion between Masa, Mune, and Doreen about the current state of the kingdom, overhearing information about the Frozen Flame and the Mammon Machine. At the mention of Lavos the party agrees to head for Zeal Palace.

(Possible transition: Focus in on Nadia's pendant, then fade to Schala's pendant, as they are identical.)

Scene 52: At the palace, Janus confronts his sister, Schala, about his premonitions. He tries to convince her not to help their mother, Queen Zeal, run the Mammon Machine any more, alluding to a terrible event in their past caused by misuse of magic. Schala reminds him that the past event was an accident and not his fault. She then worries that she does not have the willpower to oppose their mother's wishes. Janus tries to argue that their mother died when the Mammon Machine was completed, but to no avail.

ACT XVI

Scene 53: In the Zeal throne room, an aide states that the Ocean Palace is nearly complete. Dalton orders that some resources be secretly diverted back to his Blackbird project (knowing the Queen won't find out until it doesn't matter any more). As the aide leaves, Queen Zeal enters the throne room, a stranger in a hooded cloak close behind. She introduces Dalton to the prophet, and orders that Dalton relinquish his chair (next to the Queen) to the prophet. Dalton is about to protest, but he instead hears a ruffling sound. He discovers Crono and Nadia, and orders a sweep of the throne room. Lucca, Robo, Glenn, and Ayla are also captured. Zeal subdues them and orders their immediate execution, but is stopped at the advice of the prophet. She orders them stored until they can be thrown into the Mammon Machine.

Scene 54: In another room of the castle, the party members are held in suspended animation. Janus and Schala enter purposefully. Janus scoffs at the party's idiocy for getting caught, and Schala scolds him for saying such things. They proceed to release the party, and Schala asks them to free the Guru of Life from his prison on the top of the Mountain of Woe. The prophet interrupts and tells them to cooperate if they want to live. Outfitted in thick cloaks, the party leads Janus, Schala, and the prophet to the Gate. The prophet forces the party to leave 12000 BC through the Gate, and forces Schala to seal the Gate so the party cannot return.

Scene 55: The party arrives at the End of Time and decides that they must return to Zeal to stop the Queen's plans. As Glenn and Ayla meet Spekkio, Lucca realizes the strange markings from Zeal were present in the future.

Scene 56: The party makes their way to the Keeper's Dome and find a door with markings similar to those of Zeal. Nadia uses her pendant to open the door, and they encounter another old man, Belthasar. Suggesting that he had been expecting the party, Belthasar explains in his own eccentric way about the Epoch, the "Wings of Time", which he built in an effort to return to his original time. The party is further stunned to hear that he was the Guru of Reason in the kingdom of Zeal!

Act XVII

Scene 57: Using the Epoch (which already has its wings), the party flies to the top of the Mountain of Woe, where they use an enchantment given to them by Belthasar to free the Guru of Life, none other than Melchior, the swordsmith Crono met at the Millennial Fair! Melchior takes them to the earthbound city of Algetty, where humans live in poverty and despair, a sharp contrast to and horrible byproduct of the supposedly enlightened Zeal. Hearing of the party's quest, Melchior and the leaders of the Earthbound Ones implore the party to destroy the Mammon Machine. He equips them with a magical Ruby Knife to use on the Mammon Machine.

Scene 58: At Zeal Palace, Janus moves furtively about the palace. He arrives at a small room and enters. Inside is a machine similar to the Mammon Machine but much smaller. In the center of this machine is the Frozen Flame. He begins to talk with the Frozen Flame. "Mother says you have the power to grant one's deepest desires. It is time you granted mine." He reaches out to the Flame, but as he is about to touch it, he has an unusually vivid premonition of what is to come in the Ocean Palace. He recoils in shock and glares at the Frozen Flame. "I won't let it happen!" he cries as he leaves the room.

Scene 59: In the throne room of the Ocean Palace, Gaspar and Belthasar (the Gurus of Time and Reason, respectively) plead with Queen Zeal not to use the Mammon Machine. At the prophet's suggestion, Zeal accuses them of selling out to Dalton (who is not present) and orders Schala to power up the machine. Schala whimpers but complies. As the Mammon Machine powers up, Zeal gloats about the immortality she is about to achieve for herself and the kingdom. Melchior bursts into the room, with Lucca, Nadia, Robo, Glenn, and Ayla close behind. As Zeal orders guards to detain them, Crono appears and thrusts the Ruby Knife into the Mammon Machine, where it is transformed into the Masamune! Unfortunately, as Schala says sadly and Zeal repeats gleefully, it is too late for any knife to stop them.

Act XVIII

Scene 60: The all-too-familiar roar of Lavos is heard. Zeal cries out in happiness, and the throne room fades away to reveal Lavos's pocket dimension. Janus runs into the room and screams at Zeal for what she's done as he runs to Schala's arms. Suddenly the prophet throws back his cloak and reveals himself as Magus. Again hinting at tragedy in his past, he attacks Lavos with his strongest magic attack (Dark Matter). Unfortunately, Magus is not powerful enough to defeat Lavos, and as the party watches, he is drained of his magic.

Scene 61: The party attacks Lavos, and while they last somewhat longer than Magus, in the end they are also drained of their magic. In a last-ditch act of heroism, Crono confronts Lavos by himself. He channels his lightning magic in an attempt to distract Lavos, but he is quickly immobilized by Lavos. As Zeal cries happily, Crono is killed by Lavos! The party members react in shock to Crono's death. The pocket dimension begins to destabilize, and Gates begin to form randomly. The three Gurus and Janus are pulled into these Gates, arriving in 590 AD (Janus), 990 AD (Melchior), 2290 AD (Belthasar), and the End of Time (Gaspar).

Scene 62: This leaves Schala, Zeal, Magus, and the remaining five party members. Schala uses the last of her pendant's power to transport everyone except herself and Zeal out of the Ocean Palace. Lavos destroys the kingdom of Zeal.

Act XIX

Scene 63: The party members awaken in Algetty and learn of the destruction of the kingdom of Zeal. The party has no time to mourn Crono's death, as they are quickly captured by Dalton, who has taken over the kingdom of Zeal after the Ocean Palace disaster.

Scene 64: Being held in a room in the Blackbird, Lucca, Nadia, Glenn, Robo, and Ayla attempt to deal with Crono's death.

Scene 65: The party recovers enough to begin their escape from the Blackbird. Ayla's hand-to-hand combat proves vital to holding off the guards until the others can recover their weapons among the party's other items. In the hangar of the Blackbird they attempt to escape in the Epoch, but Dalton intercepts them and renames the time machine as the "Aero-Dalton Imperial". Dalton summons the Golem twins to do battle with the party, but they are soon defeated, and Dalton reluctantly allows them to leave in the Epoch.

Scene 66: The party discovers that Dalton has equipped the Epoch with laser weapons and proceed to shoot down the Blackbird. The residents of Algetty, now both Earthbound and Enlightened Ones, cheer the Blackbird's destruction.

Act XX

Scene 67: At the North Cape, the party puts the finishing touches on a grave for Crono. Their memorial is interrupted by the arrival of Magus, and after a few barbs are exchanged, Magus explains everything to them: his tragic childhood as Janus, his motivation for his actions in the middle ages, and his role as the prophet.

Scene 68: Magus taunts Crono for being a weakling, and Glenn pulls out the Masamune to defend his friend's honor. However, Glenn realizes that Magus's death will not bring Crono back, and he sheathes the broadsword. Magus realizes that the party is not giving up the fight against Lavos, and he asks to join them. Although suspicious at first, they agree when Magus mentions there may be a way to revive Crono.

Scene 69: The slight glimmer of hope is shattered as the party watches the Ocean Palace rise from the bottom of the sea to become the Black Omen.

[Tai001]

You've got some very nice ideas here, and I am sure they will make the rest of the movie very good. But becuase they now have the Wings for the Epoch from the very beginning, this means alot of the ideas I came up with for Part III need to be changed. But I can fully understand your reason for what you did, as the Mountain is like most dungeons, a time waster. (And now that I think about it, your ideas are much better)

But I have a small question. Are you planing on keeping the Black Omen in the story? Because if you are, then maybe could change my ideas a little bit so that the Black Omen only shows up at the near end of Part III. That would be a good way to have some of the Side Quest, without chaning too much in regards to the ideas I already made for it.

TTFN, Ta ta for now dude!

*Edit* I made some minor edits, simply because I am a perfectionist. XD

[Luminaire]

I would like to have the Black Omen in the movie in some form. I would suspect it would be the last major event of Part III before the fight (fights?) with Lavos.

That reminds me, I was thinking that the last event in Part II would be the party at the North Cape watching the Ocean Palace rise from the depths of the sea to become the Black Omen.

[Luminaire]

Updated what I wrote earlier to reflect a few minor adjustments, mostly act/scene renumbering.