Schala

"I know you can't forgive her but...please don't hate mother, or our kingdom."

- Schala

Schala (サラ) is the gentle, meek, and beautiful princess of Zeal, and a major character in and. She is mentioned, in, only in passing. Daughter of the Queen and King of Zeal during Antiquity, Schala is the sister of Janus, also known as Magus. Schala plays a pivotal role in the destruction of the King of Zeal; her mother and Gurus force her to magically manipulate the Mammon Machine of the Ocean Palace in an attempt to harness the power of Lavos and use it as an alternative energy source to the Sun Stone.

After teleporting Crono and his friends out of The Ocean Palace, Schala is extracted from Zeal and the entire timeline, residing in the Darkness Beyond Time with the extraterrestrial parasite. Stricken by grief, her younger brother traveled through time in an attempt to locate her. Consumed with hatred for herself for subjugating herself to the whims of her mother, Schala erases her memories and sends an incarnation of herself into another time and universe as the swashbuckling piratess Kid.

appears in Crimson Echoes, originally schedule to become a playable character.

Appearance
Adorned in purple robes, Schala sports voluminous purple or blue hair that she keeps tied with a red ribbon. She wears huge circular earrings and a Dreamstone Pendant. Her skin is very pale and she appears smug or saddened most of the time. In Chrono Cross, Schala appears as having blond hair. While the subject of much debate, it is conventionally accepted that this disparity was an oversight on the part of Square Enix.

Chrono Trigger
Schala is the princess of Zeal, and is the last wavy blue-haired woman to ever carry that title. Born into royalty, she was immediately identified as having a penchant for magic. Some speculated her ability surpassed Queen Zeal's. When the Mammon Machine was constructed, she was given a special Pendant to control it and other Sealed Doors. Her brother Janus was said to have gotten along well with Schala. She deeply cared for her younger sibling and looked out for him. Perhaps only she and Melchior knew of Janus' true power as well, for Janus expressed feeling the Black Wind to her at times. Schala also visited Algetty, where she entertained the children there and convened with the Elder. The people of Algetty later remarked that only Schala treated them as equals. After Crono's team was captured in her era, she mercifully released them in hope that they would in turn free Melchior from The Mountain of Woe. Unfortunately, The Prophet forced her to seal the Gate from which they arrived after they went back through. After Melchior was freed and the party regrouped among the Earthbound Ones, Schala noted that she had refused to help bring the Ocean Palace to full speed. Dalton soon kidnapped her, threatening to kill her if action were taken against him. There, she was forced to use the Pendant to unlock the Mammon Machine's full potential, which caused the Ocean Palace Incident. Aghast at the wild energies and dark auras erupting from the Machine, she attempted to stop it but was shocked into submission by her mother. In her last gesture, she transported Magus and the remaining party members away after Crono was killed in his attempt to save her and stop Lavos. This was her final appearance; she remained behind amid the collapsing palace. The only solace concerning her demise came at the ending of Chrono Trigger, when Magus noted that he would search for Schala in 12000 BC without fail. After defeating Lavos, it would become his life's objective.

One of the unexplained mysteries of Chrono Trigger is what occurred regarding Schala in the Lavos Timeline during the original Ocean Palace Incident. Since her pendant was passed down to Marle, it is generally accepted that Schala was able to transport herself and possibly her mother out of the Palace before its collapse (her mother's absence tidily explaining why the Black Omen never originally arose). She also makes an appearance in the DS version of Chrono Trigger as part of the Dream Devourer, the secret final boss and the Time Devourer's unevolved form. She and the being were somehow bound both physically and mentally. After "defeating" the Dream Devourer she has a conversation with the Magus. She regains control of herself for a limited time and teleports Crono's team away. She then tells Magus he cannot hope to save her as long as people lean on the crutch of power. The other Magus then becomes angry and erases his memories in an attempt to do as Schala asks and save her without "power". He finds he is in the woods with no memories except that he is in search of something.

Radical Dreamers
Although never mentioned by name in, Schala is referenced indirectly as a "girl from a far-off kingdom" who destroyed that Kingdom (Zeal) and was transported to a temporal dimension. Filled with loathing at what she had done, she could not continue living. So she made a duplicate of herself and sent it to be born into a new era. This attempted to loosely explain the fate of Schala and the identity of Kid as her incarnation before the advent of Chrono Cross. A vision reflected on the Mirror of Whispers depicts Schala and Janus playing in the courtyards of Zeal Palace. Janus whispers to Schala and her demeanor turns grave, before the vision fades. Gil reacts strongly to the vision, evincing the identity of the two children. Upon inspecting the Ballroom, Serge and the others discover a painting of a young girl that strongly resembles Kid, implying that the subject of the portrait is Schala.

Chrono Cross
Schala's fate at the end of Chrono Trigger was finally revealed. In the Ocean Palace, Schala was consumed in a dimensional vortex that brought her to the Darkness Beyond Time with the ruined Mammon Machine. There, where Lavos sat defeated by Crono, she was cruelly absorbed by the monster, resulting in the Dream Devourer (apparently, her fusion enabled Lavos the ability to consume time by having a way back into time or boosting his magical ability). The pure hatred and enmity of Lavos filled her mind, and she became split in wanting to destroy all existence and save the world and herself. This being was not complete, however, but eventually, the Dream Devourer would mature and begin destroying the universe. However, as Schala remained bound to Lavos, she heard Serge crying from being wounded by a panther demon, and struggled with all her might to make contact with the time period 1006 A.D. This caused the magnetic storm that nullified the power systems of Chronopolis and allowed Serge to touch the Frozen Flame and become its Arbiter.

Before the hatred in her mind took over, she also cloned herself in the form of Kid and sent the baby to Lucca at an unspecified time (though the cloning had to take place in 1004 A.D.). Given to Kid as well was her ancient pendant, for protection. Thanks to Project Kid, Serge and his group were able to utilize the Time Egg and defeat the Time Devourer; using the Chrono Cross, they restored the dimensions into one and seamlessly separated Schala from the evil entity binding her. She then delivered an oration on the struggle of lifeforms to truly achieve "life" and evolve into something beautiful and new entirely. Before Serge returned to his own time, she noted that she would find him someday.

The last appearance of Schala in the Chrono series is, like her disappearance in Chrono Trigger, painfully without stable ground. It is unknown where she goes after she is freed, or why finding Serge would be such an impossible task considering she knows that he is in 1020 A.D. Odd enough as well is the fact that she makes no mention of Magus, a brother who has devoted his life to finding her. However, the most enigmatic aspect of the ending is her deliverance of a few lines in Kid's manner of speaking and her signing the ending journal entry as Schala "Kid" Zeal. This raises the question of whether the two were fused together, but considering that Kid had declared her independence on Opassa Beach, and that we never see such a fusion, it is unlikely. Additionally, the issue of Schala giving her pendant to Kid and therefore not allowing Marle to receive it by way of Guardian heirloom is an old one.

Additionally, it is worth noting that Harle bears a strong resemblance to Kid in facial and physical features. She also shares the same fortune as given by the Fortune Teller of Termina. Many attribute this to the fact that if the Dragon God were to create a human being, the closest set of genetics would be Schala trapped within the Time Devourer. Kid and Harle could thus conceivably come from Schala's genotype.

Trivia

 * The name Schala comes from the Arabic name, Salah, meaning virtuous. A prominent prophet in Islamic tradition bears this name. Her Japanese name, Sara, means Princess in Hebrew.
 * A running trend in the Enlightened Ones is the color of their clothing: purple. Especially documented in Schala, Janus, and Alfador (in this case, his fur). In human color psychology, purple is also associated with royalty and nobility (stemming from when  was only affordable to the elites), which lends explanation to this trend.
 * The shift in her hair color from blue to blond, as well as the change in her clothing, between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross is not only unexplained, it is seemingly unnoticed by any character. If both of these were lost via bondage to the Time Devourer, Kid would have inherited blue hair nonetheless - as such would be genetically coded - and Schala would not have had her clothing replaced.