Part 40: Wings of Time
SILENCE 
Looks like our party's stuck in this odd little room.
This entire section has no music, which is lame but whatever.
The equipment hath evanesced!
Items are missing, too!
What you buy stuff with, "money" gone too.Looks like Dalton is more competent than he appears. Even the idiots in Guardia didn't bother confiscating Crono's gear, may he rest in peace.
The gimmick here is that your party is defenseless since they have no weapons or armor to fight with...except Ayla, since her offense is punching people. Which makes you wonder why Robo can't help since he also punches people, but whatever.
If you don't have Ayla, though, you're stuck to pure stealth for awhile.
We do have a ladder to climb, so let's do so.
This must be...
Dalton may be a bumbling oaf, but the guy clearly knows what he's doing. He now rules the piddling remains of the world from high in the massive airship he hijacked right before the disaster.
From here, we have two options on how to proceed. We can climb up the airduct, or...
...we can do the whole "act sick" routine. Let's start with the latter.
Usually the third character does this routine, which is a shame because I miss out on Robo making an awful pun about catching the guard "OFF GUARD." It's worth having Frog for third though because of the "The equipment hath evanesced!" line and the following...
Ayla feels bad for lying about being sick if she's the one playing the act.
That said, there's not much reason to actually do this method unless you specifically have Ayla in your party, as you only have one chance to wander around before getting caught, and if you can't fight, you get sent back to your room with only the air ducts to escape.
But since Ayla can fight, it's time to beat some idiots up.
Only Ayla can currently fight, but these Bashers have an utterly pathetic 150HP, so they're mere nuisances.
There are five chests total, one for money, one for items, and three for each character's gear.
Note that you cannot swap characters from the End of Time in during this section.
The ladder simply leads to another overlook on the edge of the plane.
The intended and easier way to navigate this plane is through the air ducts.
The Blackbird is two massive rooms with plenty of smaller rooms within, plus the air ducts themselves.
Most of these are just a look at areas with a few ladders down to access different sections and rooms, but there's one in particular with a sleeping guard protecting a chest that you can only access from the ducts.
Of course, this is your first character's equipment, which means there's a guaranteed way to have one person able to fight without having to interact with guards.
In this case, my first character is Ayla, so this actually doesn't help me as much as another character would, but at the same time this area is so pathetically easy that it doesn't really matter.
Along the way, we grab Frog's gear as well, letting him join in on battles now.
At the very southern end of the ship, we get this cutscene.
It's Dalton and the Epoch. Uh-oh.
Me thinks he CAN'T just tinker with another's possession!
This line is uttered by whoever's the first character, but it's still weird to have Ayla of all people trying to calm the others down.
A Strange Happening 
The world now belongs to me!
We better get moving, then.
SILENCE 
The only other enemy on the deck is the Byte, which has high physical defense but still low HP.
There's a group of six Bashers here, but techs make short work of them.
There's another room we can only access from the main room, which nets our final character's gear.
This room has our items, and not only that...
...it also leads to the surface of the Blackbird itself, and is the way to progress.
We do get a warning about missing stuff still if we haven't gotten everything.
The wind is strong out here, and these Turrets dot the surface.
These have the same gimmicks as the Rokks on Mt. Woe, namely high evasion but you're stuck with physicals. The only real difference is that they have an actual attack, a weak laser that still is little to worry about.
And instead of running away, they self-destruct.
Still worth a cool 100TP, so it's worth fighting them. The main issue is that they move in such a way that you can encounter two in one battle, and considering it takes the majority of the time you have before they self-destruct just to take out one, you want to avoid having two in one battle if possible.
Pick up some more techs, though this area's bad for showing stuff off, so they'll have to wait until later.
Eventually we reach the edge of the wing, and going downward reveals...
It's a massive magic energy reaction!
It's yet another golem!
Boss Battle 1 
The Golem Boss is an...interesting fight.
First off, he has a countdown from 5 until his major attack.
Which is...
...another countdown. And once that hits 1...
...he cowers in fear.
Turns out he's scared of heights and will end up not attacking at all. Which means you can burn through his 15000HP with ease.
Eventually, he runs away if you don't kill him fast enough.
And that's that for that.
A Strange Happening 
And THEY'RE gonna be my first victims!
Chrono Trigger 
A Shot of Crisis 
Ready for takeoff!
The Aero-Dalton Imperial! We have lift-off, Houston!!
Th, that's!
Mwa, ha, haha!! You are excess baggage!
Not only does the Epoch have wings, but it apparently has lasers now...?
Grrrrrr...!If Marle's here, she kinda loses it a bit due to the loss of Crono still hitting her hard.
Boss Battle 1 
Now we fight Dalton Plus on top of the flying Epoch.
He still has the Iron Orb counter to everything, but mixes it up with a few weak attacks here and there, along with counters to elemental attacks (which I don't use because my party's all physical characters anyway).
There's...really little else to talk about for this fight. He has below 3000HP so it won't take long to beat him with the techs you have access to by now.
https://mp4.mega64.net/ct/28/116.mp4
Anyway, this is what happens when Dalton is defeated (with bonus Beast Toss because I wanted to see that twerp get nearly one-shot by being smashed into the Epoch).
With yet another tech gained as a result!
That groundling thief!
More importantly, did he change the controls? A Shot of Crisis 
Only one way to find out...
https://mp4.mega64.net/ct/28/126.mp4
And with that, we accidentally defeat the Blackbird and salvage the Epoch.
The survivors celebrate the defeat of the tyrant idiot Dalton.
Epoch ~ Wings That Cross Time 
And this is when we first hear one of my favorite songs in the game, the Epoch theme.
So yeah, our time machine can fly now, which means we've got ourselves a proper airship that can fly wherever we want, whenever we want!
If we left behind our inventory, we'd find our stuff stashed in the Epoch. If we left behind our money, though, we wouldn't be getting that back.
Also, if Marle's in the party, she thinks of Crono while the others reassure her.
For now, let's take a break and check in on the survivors.
Our party has recovered a souped-up Epoch and once and for all saved the remains of Zeal from any remaining tyrants. They're in control of their own destinies, and with the powers of time travel, perhaps there may be a way to bring Crono back...
Next time, we check up on an old friend and begin our quest to bring back the dead...
...I couldn't resist.