Key Of Chronos

Papa Smurf with the Key of Chronos.

The Key of Chronos was a magical device used by the Smurfs in Vic George's fanfiction story "Smurfed Behind: The Departure" for time-traveling. It is a Smurf-sized key with a clock on one end of the key that the time traveler places his hands on and says "Key of Chronos, open the doorway of time" to activate its power. When the device is active, it inserts itself into an invisible lock and turns itself in it, opening up a vortex that the time traveler can enter to whatever time period the traveler wishes to go to -- with the traveler's clothes modified according to gender and to whatever specific time period (and geographical location) the traveler arrives in. The device is powered by rare chronosyte crystals that would render the key useless if they were lost; however, if the key itself was lost but the crystals weren't, they could still be used by the time traveler to travel through time by arranging them in a specific order, but they will not take the traveler back to his or her own time period as easily as they would if the key was not lost in the first place.

Papa Smurf received the Key of Chronos from Father Time (who kept it hidden within a magical clock that would de-age anything or anyone except a guardian of time that entered into it) when the other Smurfs found a baby dinosaur named Crinkles that they needed to bring back to the prehistoric period in order to save his life. Initially, Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf were the only ones who were supposed to travel through time using the key. However, after the two Smurfs and Crinkles have disappeared into the vortex that they have opened up, the other Smurfs as well as Puppy and Smoogle have also started being sucked into the vortex. Polaris Psyche and Traveler Smurf tried to keep Smurfette from being pulled into the vortex, but were unable to save her. Just as Traveler's powers were failing and Polaris was being pulled toward the vortex, the vortex closed up and vanished, leaving Polaris in the present time to tell Empath what had transpired.

As far as what was revealed in the story, the time-traveling Smurfs have lost the Key of Chronos in a volcano, yet somehow have managed to salvage the crystals that power it. Papa Smurf was now faced with the difficult task of finding the right combination of arranging the crystals so that he could bring his little Smurfs back home to their time and to the Smurf Village.

The Key of Chronos was also used by Empath and the other Smurfs in an alternate timeline explored by Traveler in which Smurfette was married to Papa Smurf, with the same mission of bringing Crinkles back to his own place in time. It is presumed that the key was also lost in this timeline and the Smurfs that used it were unable to return home to their own time.

The Key of Chronos is used in place of the Time Scrolls which were used by the Smurfs in the Season 9 cartoon episode "The Smurfs That Time Forgot" for time-traveling.