Frozen Flame (Anti-annihilation Energy within)

Inquiry

Two Chronopolis researchers have this conversation about the Counter-Time Experiment that caused the Time Crash:

 [Ghost]
   I heard group 3B's experiment
   today is going to be a biggie.
   They're releasing the Flame's
   lock-level to D in order to trace
   the counter-time effect...
   
 [Ghost]
   Yeah, but based on previous
   experiments, I'm sure it'll
   work out just fine.
   During their simulation,
   FATE guaranteed that they
   would be able to use the
   Flame as an up-link to
   extract the anti-annihilation
   energy associated with it.
   Don't worry, it'll be a success.

Just what is anti-annihilation energy?

Theory

Scientific Explanation

Infinitus

Hmm, when a particle and anti-particle pair collide, the process is called annihilation. But the inverse is not anti-annihilation; the correct term is simply pair production.

Still, if I recall correctly some physicists refer to an "anti-annihilation" arrangement in an experiment if this experiment is prepared in such a way as to avoid the annihilation between particles and their antiparticle. But I'm not sure this is a common accepted term.

So I think the Chronopolis scientists are only using the Frozen Flame to power an experiment where particles and anti-particles can be created, but must separated to avoid annihilation.

Anti-change Agent

Thought

On the surface it seems to have a technobabble-y name; "Anti-Annihilation." That might just mean "creationary" energy. Yet, if it were just "annihilation energy," I think most people would take it to mean that it destroys everything. If we switched that, would anti-annihilation energy create everything? Is the Frozen Flame some sort of Genesis Device (and Lavos really just Spock; if so, they went a bit overboard with the pointy ears and eyebrows)? The Frozen Flame is also responsible for Human Evolution, so might this "Anti-Annihilation energy" be the means of that effect?

From a poetic standpoint, change could be seen as constant annihilation; nothing is ever the same from one moment to the next. Anti-annihilation energy might, then, make things permanent ("a fixed point in time and space ... a fact."). Chronopolis certainly seems to be doing quite well over 10,000ish years. Even how it influenced human evolution; it gave humans the power to not adapt but to remain constant while forcing the planet to adapt to them.

A recent expansion if this idea:

one theory supposing that Queen Zeal obtained a degree of immortality by Lavos stopping the passage of time, for her at least. This is very similar to some of the supposed effects of AAE: specifically, that is creates something that is not changing due to the passage of time but rather something that is constant.

We may have seen the fundamental goal of the Counter Time Experiment in Chrono Trigger. That is, the Ocean Palace/Black Omen. While Zeal is revealed to be a very advanced civilization, it seems unlikely that the Black Omen could survive exposed to the elements for 14,300 years. The Chief at Chronopolis states that the end-result of the experiment would make Chronopolis a “presence” in time, “much like god.” The Black Omen certainly seems to be a presence, existing in the world but being unaffected by it and largely unchanging.

Thus, the Black Omen and Chronopolis may be experiencing very similar phenomenon. And if AAE is responsible for Chronopolis’ immortal presence in the world, and if the Black Omen has that same kind of immortal presence, then it would seem like we can identify Queen Zeal’s immortality likewise as being an unchanging “presence.”

This is also a thematically appealing prospect. Compare it with Ayla’s words:

Ayla
Ayla fight while alive!
Win and live. Lose and die.
Rule of life.
No change rule.

Ayla, being of a non-Lavos-influenced stock, could be said to be representing the Entity/Planet’s position. Queen Zeal, using Lavos’ power, is violating this “rule of life.” Likewise, the Black Omen and Chronopolis seem to be violating this rule as well by becoming presences outside of the battle of life (take that, Lion King).

Zeal’s quest for immortality, Queen Zeal’s own desires, the Black Omen, and Chronopolis all thus might be tied into Anti-Annihilation Energy and AAE to Lavos in terms of its counter-entity effects.

Adjunct: Time Devourer Preservation

Chrono'99

Lost timelines go to the Darkness Beyond Time, where they appear to be phased out of existence. Yet the Time Devourer and the party can physically go there. Perhaps the Time Devourer maintains its physical existence by using anti-annihilation energy to prevent itself from being "annihilated" by the nature of the Darkness Beyond Time, and the party can also benefit from this effect (which might extend beyond the Time Devourer's immediate area).

Counter-Time Experiment

Boo the Gentleman Caller

Based on what we've seen in Chrono Trigger, time travel mostly works like it does in Back to the Future. There's a singular timeline that, when there are changes to the timeline, the previous timeline gets "erased" and shunted to the Darkness Beyond Time, while it is replaced by the new timeline in which the change was made. This contrasts somewhat with multiverse theory, something the Chrono series never really explores as a possibility but tiptoes upon this with the existence of the Reptite Dimension, the origin of the Dragonians in a timeline in which Lavos never descended upon the planet.

• When a change to history is made, the original timeline is discarded to the Darkness Beyond Time, while the new timeline becomes the prime history
• Discarded timelines converge in the metaphysical, yet singular realm of the Darkness Beyond Time

The Counter-Time Experiment, I then theorize, was to try and utilize counter-time, namely the ability to retrieve and revisit discarded timelines. We've seen several timelines in the Chrono series - the original timeline in which Lavos destroys the planet, and a new timeline (Keystone Timeline) in which Crono and company stop him, which in turn results in Chrono Cross. We know that Balthasar arrived in the new, non-apocalyptic 2300AD and utilized Central Regime resources to found the Time Travel Institute, Chronopolis, and Project Kid. His penultimate goal was to save Schala by any means necessary, even if that included creating an insanely convoluted plan regarding the near-murder of a child in order to move the Time Devourer/Schala just enough for Schala to regain enough humanity to create a sort of semi-clone. The Counter-Time Experiment was part of that.

What if the Counter-Time Experiment was originally intended to reach into these previous, discarded timelines and simply pluck Schala into the prime timeline. No need for a multiverse, and no need for the entirety of Project kid -- just reach into previous histories and grab Schala before she became part of the Dream Devourer entity. Problem solved, and it resembles the use of the Chrono Trigger Time Egg. However, the experiment failed and Chronopolis was hurled into the age of Antiquity, and we all know what happened from there.

Matter and Antimatter from Energy

Faustwolf

If it were just "annihilation energy," I would suspect it had something to do with the collision of matter and antimatter, scientifically known as Annihilation. But since it's anti annihilation, if it were interpreted in the reverse in real physics terms, it would have to involve the creation of matter and antimatter from energy, thus requiring the input of energy and resulting in a matter + antimatter output. However, I'm probably mistakenly conflating the term "energy" with the subatomic particles that carry said energy, so the nature of the annihilation process may simply change one type of subatomic particle into another type, or something.

Timeline Preserver

ZeaLitY

Anti-annihilation energy may somehow stop the destruction or shunting of past timelines to the Darkness Beyond Time when history is changed. The crazy application is that perhaps this played a role in giving birth to Home World as a separate dimension, when Kid's time-change should have merely shunted Another World's 1010-1020 A.D. history to the DBT with no other effects. So, tenuously, perhaps the Time Crash's anti-annihilation energy was directed towards that point in time for some reason (ah, we're in left field here), or, the Frozen Flame (which seems to be a source or conduit of this energy) was used in 1010 A.D. to create Home World from Kid's change, perhaps activated deep within FATE as part of Project Kid.

To justify that anti-annihilation energy reverses that timeline-shunting effect, well, perhaps the Counter-Time Experiment needed that so Chronopolis wouldn't accidentally overwrite history in the past and negate itself out of existence. Although really, creating a new dimension isn't exactly "controlling time", since they'd be separated from their achievements.

Adjunct: Serge Conduit

Thought

To expand on that, at the time the dimensions split, Serge had already come in contact with the Frozen Flame and, presumably, been subject to this "anti-annihilation" energy. This might provide a conduit through which Anti-Annihilation energy could have effected the dimensional split.

Temporal Manipulator

Thought

AAE seems to have a notable effect on time (I know, that is a bit of a "dur" statement"). It's "counter-time" effect (that is another topic: what is counter-time?) seems to have caused the Time Crash, or at least exposed it to beings capable of perceiving things outside of the normal flow of time (aka, Lavos). There may be other instances of this effect (on a significantly smaller scale).

If AAE is associated with Lavos and not just the Frozen flame, then it is possible that AAE is also responsible for the start of Chrono Trigger. Marle's pendant is unique in several ways, including its time with Schala, during which it had apparently absorbed a lot of Lavos's energy (which may be AAE, but that is itself debatable). The Pendant, in turn, was responsible for creating/opening that first Gate. Given that there is no way Lucca could have duplicated the Dreamstone component of the pendant (lacking Dreamstone), it may in turn be that the Gate Key utilizes AAE to open gates (albeit on an incredibly microscopic scale).

Then there is the end of the Battle with Magus. Lavos was summoned and it may be that the associated AAE opened a crazy time gate that did not function like other Gates (violated the 3 passenger limit, sent them to different time zones, etc). This seems particularly similar to the Time Crash, but on a drastically reduced scale.

However, to be fair, all of this assumes that Lavos's energy is the same as AAE energy. It may well be that Lavos has several different types of energy at his disposal, or even that AAE is a side effect of something else completely (like Lavos being in the DBT when the Frozen Flame is associated with AAE).

From: Theory (Objects)