Ayla

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

- Ayla

Ayla (エイラ) is a character in and is the chief of the Ioka Tribe in Prehistory. Her people are in constant war against the Reptites, an evolved, intelligent race of reptiles. She is characterized as fiercely courageous, decisively confident, and morally pure.

Appearance
Ayla's name could be an allusion to, the protagonist of which is a tall, light blonde-hair, blue-eyed, prehistoric girl named Ayla. It could also refer to the tayra (Eira barbara), as her outfit contains a furry tail akin to the one of these animals. In the ending cutscene of the PlayStation and Nintendo DS port of Chrono Trigger, Ayla is seen brashly forcing engagement on Kino, her suitor and one of Marle's ancestors. This displays her confident and strong-willed personality.

In Chrono Cross, Ayla does not make an appearance. However, a young girl from an area similar to Ayla's prehistoric time named Leah bears a striking resemblance to her in manner and appearance. She also says to Serge at the end of the game that she will name her child "Ayla", a name meaning "New song of land" according to her.

Biography
Prior to the year 65,000,000 B.C., Ayla became chief of Ioka village due to her strength and fearlessness, acquiring a sample of Dreamstone as a symbol of that office. She led her people in the war against the Reptites. When the mysterious time-travelers from the Future arrived, Ayla temporarily relinquished her post to join them in their quest to stop Lavos. Kino, her mate, served as chief in her place. After the defeat of Nizbel in the Reptite Lair, she mentions that upon dying or falling ill, Kino will become chief of the Ioka Village. Because of this, it seems that the title of chief does not necessarily travel to the strongest or most courageous of the Iokan Tribe, but rather, progresses to spouse or the next genetic heir, much like the monarchy that exists in following eras.



In the original Japanese and the re-translated English version of Chrono Trigger, she makes a potentially bisexual comment upon meeting the party (which was censored to "respect" in the original English translation). In the new re-translation in In the re-translation, she says that Kino would become chief if she had a baby, rather than falling ill. Ayla expressed concern over the small size of Marle's breasts, worrying that they weren't sufficient to give milk to children; this exchange was censored in American versions of the game. After Lavos hits the planet, dust blasts into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun. This causes an ice age and the extinction of the Reptites. Ayla subsequently retires from her duties as chief, and after the defeat of Lavos, returns to 65,000,000 B.C. and marries Kino with a Dreamstone ring. As she is the distant ancestor of Marle and the Guardia Royal Family, she produced a lineage that survived the Ice Age and even survived the Fall of Zeal.

It is unknown whether Ayla re-assumes her role as chief after pregnancy.

Story
Ayla is first introduced to the party when Crono and his friends visit the prehistoric era searching for Dreamstone to repair Frog's sword, The Masamune. Upon their arrival in Mystic Mountain, they are ambushed by a seemingly ceaseless swarms of Reptite. Ayla shows up to fight them off and invites the time-travelers to her village for a party. Ayla, as chieftain, is keeper of the Dreamstone, and during the party, if Crono beats Ayla at an alcohol-chugging competition (censored in the American version as soup), she willingly forks it over. The next day, they find the camp has been ransacked by Reptites and the Gate Key stolen. Tracking the Reptites to the Forest Maze, Ayla convinces Kino to admit he had stolen the Gate Key out of jealousy, after which the Reptites stole it from him. Ayla, Crono, and the others invade the Reptite Lair, defeat Nizbel, and take the Gate Key from Azala so they can return to the present and repair the sword. Ayla does not appear again until the battle against Magus transports the party back to Prehistory. Alongside Ayla, Crono and the others battle the Reptites and witness the arrival of Lavos on the planet at Tyranno Lair. As the alien parasite falls from the sky as a "Red Star", Azala predicts an Ice Age will claim the land. It is at this point that Ayla names "Lavos", a word she made up from the root words "La" meaning "fire" and "Vos" "big" in the Iokan language.

Ayla then decides to join the party permanently to help defeat Lavos.

Abilities
Ayla cannot use magic because she was born before humans became able to do so (as further explained through human evolution in Chrono Cross). Highly dexterous, Ayla travels and attacks on her hands and feet, reminiscent of apes or felines. She relies on unarmed combat and physical prowess in battle. Unable to equip weapons to assist her in battle, she instead receives upgrades to the critical hit rate of her Fists. At Level 72, her critical hit raises to 35% and inflicts the Status Effect, Confuse. At Level 96, her critical hit damage increase to 9,999 damage, much like Robo's Apocalypse Arm, the primary difference being that this weapon inflicts normal damage on non-critical hits. Exclusive to the DS release of the game are two more upgrades that bridge the gap between Level 1 and Level 72. The upgrade at Level 24 increases her critical hit rate to 25%, whereas the upgrade at Level 48 boosts it to 30%. After this, her fists upgrade as they normally would in Super Nintendo Entertainment System release. In full-motion video present in the PlayStation release of the game, Ayla attacks enemies with a club. This never appears in-game.

Departing from the usual role of female characters in role-playing games, Ayla is a physical damage dealer. She is the physically strongest character in Chrono Trigger, and is able to take the most damage next to Robo.

All of her techs focus on dealing physical damage, except her Charm tech, which is used to steal items, and Kiss which heals one character. This also makes Ayla the game's "thief" character, because her charm ability is the only way to obtain items from enemies.

Although Ayla cannot use magic, she has a small percentage of resistance against Fire magic (each character has a small resistance against something). This suggests that if Ayla had the genetics for magic, she'd be a Fire innate like Lucca. Furthering the association, Ayla's name is composed of two syllables, "Ay" and "La" respectively. She admits that "La" in Iokan tongue means "Fire", and "Ay" in conventional English is an affirmation or a tongue-in-cheek version of the pronoun "I". In other words, "I fire"