Crash and Spyro, A Friendship Across Lifetimes

Chapter 47: Altered Future Part 3

Dr. Cortex could not believe what had just happened. This was supposed to be his destiny; this was supposed to be his opportunity to overcome all the hardships in his life by becoming better than everyone and everything that ever held him back. His genius was to be his tool, to build and to innovate, create that which had never been built or maybe even conceived before: the Evolve-O Ray, the Cortex Vortex, the N Trance Protocol, the Cybernetic Engine, the Time Twisting Machine, and interdimensional travel; all products of his brilliance. It must have been fate's cruel joke then that his defeat would be by the hands of his best friend, his niece, his greatest living creation, and these barbarians that he thought he destroyed.

"Defeated! This is not fair! Maybe I should retire to a nice, big beach with a nice, big drink. And a woman with nice, big... bags of ice for my head."

<I'm going to spear you right through your chest like you had done to my father, you bastard!> Niko said in a rage. It was Nina and Nitrous Brio that held him back.

"Now that sounds like something you would have said ten years ago, Cortex. When I wouldn't have thought you were a monster like I do now."

"Well it's true, Brio. Defeat can humble a man. Make him take a long hard look at his life. All the technology I've made, if it got into the wrong hands could do much... good in the world."

"But even now your arrogance shows. You did not single handedly create all the technology you boast about. The Evolve-O Ray was as much of my invention as it was yours. And the Time Twisting Machine was a design of N Tropy's."

"It is powered by the Power Gems, the only reason my design is sustainable and feasible is because of Cortex's work with the Power Gems."

"Shut up Nefarious" Nina replied bitterly.

"Don't you to realize the significance of Cortex's and I's work you treacherous little girl! Don't any of you! Interdimensional travel throughout the entirety of the orrery of worlds! And time travel to the past or the future! I've seen it! I know how it all works! The other universes! And even the tangential reality caused by the use of my Time Twisting Machine in the past. You, you little skunk! You know what I'm talking about. Your past self was sent back in time and caused a new reality because of your interactions with creatures of the past! You met the Sorceress and learned of the Convexity along with the two spirits: Aku-Aku of Order and Uka-Uka of Chaos! You know this because of that book called the 'Atlas' which you hide on the beach! What did you learn from it! Tell me!"

<Did that crazy man just mention my father's talisman?> Kawabata asked in confusion.

"Crash, what is he talking about?" Coco asked confusedly as well.

Crash walked forward nervously and stood before N Tropy. "How do you know all of this?" Crash asked using his SAD.

"The Power Gems showed me! Like the visions you're past self had in the past. What were you visions of! What is your purpose! Tell me you little skunk! What business do you have wielding the full power of the convexity like that damn purple dragon of the past!"

Crash's life before his mutation was not something he had ever thought about. Crash had become aware that he was a mutant, but he never really fully grasped this concept and all that this implied until after he met Nina. His life, his sentience, his emotions, and feelings... his love was a fabrication. Tawna... Crash finally came up with a name for her after telling Coco about her and showing Coco her grave. "Tawna" was the Budakan word for blond. It suited her. Now, sitting on the beach staring at the sunset alone, Crash contemplated several things about himself: how old was he, why does he look the way he does, what was his purpose beside the one given to him? Did his life have a purpose, this anthropomorphic body?

"What's wrong, Crash?" Nina asked him. Nina always seemed to know what mood Crash was in. She explained this by saying her time as his caretaker at the carnival allowed her to recognize what he was feeling. And sadness was especially visible, because of the way his long ears drooped at the top of his head.

"It's what N Tropy said last week. About my purpose" Crash responded with his SAD. Normally this white little box could help Crash conceal his emotions. Not today.

"N Tropy said a lot of things. Maybe I can help you understand your purpose if you could explain to me what the hell he was talking about."

"I'd like to know, too." Coco said as she approached Crash and Nina. Kawabata and Niko were close behind. It was weird how things worked out after Cortex's defeat. It wasn't easy, but after Cortex and his minions fell, Crash was left with a foot in Budakan and another with Nina and Nitrous. The time Crash had spent with Coco and Niko before the burning of Budakan was sacred in Crash's mind, along with the few months he had with Tawna.

<That... N Tropy... person mentioned my father's talisman during his rant, Crash> Kawabata interjected. <And now I see you have a duplicate over their next to that palm tree, and I have the original my dad gave to me before he died around my neck.> Kawabata pointed to the Aku-Aku pendent hanging from his neck with his robotic hand. Despite the language barrier between Kawabata and Nina, their prosthetics actually gave them something in common, which was why Kawabata had recently asked Coco to help him understand English.

"It's a long story, guys. I think it's better if I show you." Crash repeated this in Budakan. Crash did his best to ask the group to wait till tomorrow, for he found a way to answer all the ambiguity of N Tropy's rant.

But before they departed to Cortex's castle the next day, Crash read the Atlas once again. The words were different each time he read the book. He learned of the fate of Niko and Budakan on his first read, and then the history of Cortex and his niece on his second read. The book was honest; it spoke unbiased of the life of Neo Cortex, so Crash now understood him. After all, Cortex and Nina were responsible for his creation. It was only after his defeat and the restoration of Budakan did Crash permit himself to read the red book once again. This time, he reread of a different past, one so close and yet tangentially different; and of a dragon whose life he had profoundly changed and who profoundly changed his.

"This is N Tropy's Time Twisting Machine, Crash. What do you plan on doing with it?" Nina asked curiously.

"This machine allows you to peer into the past along with traveling through it" Crash responded.

"And how do you know this?" Coco asked before Nina could.

"The Atlas."

<That's the red book, right> Niko asked in confusion. Unlike Crunch, Niko did not have any interest in learning English.

"This is what you meant," Nina responded, "when you said you found a way to show us what N Tropy was talking about."

"Indeed it is" N Brio answered as he entered the room. "I'll activate the machine, Crash. Hopefully this solves the riddle that N Tropy has told."

"Hopefully it proves my doubts wrong." Crash responded. "Focus on my past first, Brio. Go back as far as you can."

The large sphere appeared in the center of the room, to the Budakans amazement. Nina and Crash watched unmoving as the sphere grew in size and eradiated bolts of spiraling energy, which were caught and naturalized by an invisible wall of magnetic and electric energy. Nitrous Brio calibrated the delicate machine which was currently being powered by all seven Power Gems. He set the machine's scope to a specific time in the past, and changed its location to focus on Crash himself. What ended up happening confused Brio.

"N Tropy was certainly right about tangential realities, Crash. Apparently, you did travel to the past once in your life, because I can identify two unique timelines in which you existed."

"I want to know all about it, Brio. Show me" Crash asked. Everyone then stared intriguingly at the large sphere.

Crash's life at the carnival, his mutation via the Evolve-O Ray, his escape from Cortex and his life on the beach with Tawna, his reaction to her death and attempt to suicide was not news to Crash, even though it shocked Coco and Nina. The sphere continued with images of Coco finding Crash on the beach and brining him to Budakan, Crash and Niko's time together fishing, Coco and Crash's time together with her teaching him Budakan and forming a bond, the burning of Budakan. It wasn't anything new to the group. But then images of Niko being entrapped by fire in a collapsing hut, his struggle to free himself and dragging himself out of the conflagration, his mutilated body being discovered by Cortex and the transformation that occurred to him via the Cybernetic Engine, Aku-Aku deeming Crash worthy of his power, Cortex's rescue by N Gin after Crash defeated him, Crash's grief alone on the beach, Coco and Crunch's wedding and the attack by Cortex and N Gin during their celebration, N Brio saving Coco and Crash and helping attempt to foil Cortex's plans, his death at the hands of N Tropy, N Gin attacking his own sister and nearly killing Crash, Crash's transformation via the convexity, and his accidental traversal into the past. It all played out in front of them. An alternate past.

"Oh my god." Coco whispered as she looked at her brother.

<That was the fate you spared me from, Crash. You saved me from becoming Cortex's monster> Niko replied humbly.

"Brio, switch back to our timeline and go back a hundred thousand years. Focus on a Dragon named Spyro" Crash then asked without hesitation using his SAD.

N Brio was still a little shocked seeing his own death play out, but he obliged to Crash's demand and the Time Twisting Machine peered back into the past.

Together, they watched Crash and Spyro form a friendship, their struggles to defeat Gnasty Gnork, and then their time spent together before the Sorceress attacked, and eventually watched Crash's sacrifice.