A/N: Hello and welcome to my story about Star Ocean. This takes place long after Star Ocean: Til the End of Time, so the story's setting is outside of the Eternal Sphere. I won't give much away, but this may become a Persona crossover story. Note: Language and Suggestive themes will be present in most of the story, particularly because of Reyna, who is a chronic swearer. I hope you enjoy the first chapter.
One: The Beginning
The Pangalactic Federation knew about it before it happened. They could not deny the signs of the meteor falling towards Hyperia VI, nor the disastrous effects it would have on the planet once it hit. The federation made the decision to withhold this information from the inhabitants of the doomed planet to prevent them from dying in fear. Their plan worked.
Nearly a month had passed when the meteor struck, devastating the planet's surface and polluting the atmosphere with toxic fumes. Billions of lives were claimed by this 'error in calculations' by the PGF and the few survivors demanded compensation for their losses. These demands were not met and so began the riots.
Millions were outraged at the PGF's decision and began to protest. These nonviolent protest quickly turned into civil riots as the PGF continued to deny the former Hyperians their compensation. Soon these riots were suppressed by the federation's soldiers and the Hyperians were exiled for treasonous behavior. Several centuries later, The PGF send a small group of ships to investigate Pandora I, formerly known as Hyperia VI...
Ezelph Lina sat on his bed in the resting quarters of the Palladion, an Exploration Class vessel that he was assigned to by the Pangalactic Federation in order to complete his training as a Starship Navigator or Star Navi for short. He stretches for a moment before getting out of bed and walking to the Training Deck of the the Starship and setting the machine there to spar. The machine whirs for a moment before projecting a blonde human wearing armor from a predecessor of the PGF, the SRF, and a golden ring. The projection smirks cockily upon seeing Ezelph.
"Here for the next session? I'm itching to get some exercise," states the projection as it draws an orange and silver hilt from behind its back. Ezelph draws a short sword and dons a serious expression.
"I'll beat you this time Maverick," he states as the projection activates its weapon, the Laser Weapon. Both enter fighting stances: one from the SRF era, the other from a self taught style. The projection's smirk becomes a grim line across its face.
"That's ex-Captain Edge Maverick to you," it replies as it and Ezelph circle one another. Suddenly Ezelph rushes the projection, slashing in a horizontal arc. Edge simply blocks the sword with his own and slashes downwards, striking Ezelph's torso and sending him sprawling. Ezelph gets up and rushes Edge again, this time sliding into an imbalancing strike that Edge sidesteps. Ezelph smirks as his momentum carries him forwards, then flips himself and springs at the projection before it can act, knocking it off balance.
"Told you, I'll win this time," says Ezelph as Edge picks himself up and dusts himself off. His eyes narrow as his sword glows blue and a symbol appears on his hand. He then laughs heartily.
"You've improved," he says re-entering his fighting stance, "But you've only seen the tip of the iceberg. Stampede Slash!" Ezelph's eyes widen as Edge suddenly sprints towards him at an astonishing speed and is forced back by the ferocity and sheer strength behind the projection's blows, particularly its final blow that breaks through his guard. The projection follows this with an attack called Aura Spark, a series of large, golden, crescent shaped, waves of energy that send Ezelph into a wall. Ezelph curses as he avoids another Aura Spark. You mean he was never going all out before!? Was this guy a monster while he was alive? Ezelph attempts to route Edge, but has no luck when Edge casts Firebolt, an old art from the branch of magic called Symbology, and scorches him. Before he can recover, Ezelph is subjected to a fierce combination of the attacks Rising Blade, which launches him upwards after a series of criscrossing slashes culminating in an uppercut, and Mystic Cross, which propels him much further into the air and into a wall with a rising, spiraling, slash followed by a vicious kick.
"My turn," shouts Ezelph after recovering from the jarring effect of the projections attacks. He sprints towards Edge, but misses when Edge sidesteps once again. Foreseeing this, Ezelph continues his sprint towards a wall, which he partially scales before launching himself towards Edge and spinning like a tornado. Edge, though briefly surprised by Ezelph's tactic, casts something on himself and proceeds to use Stampede Slash to counter his trainee's attack. Both collide and repel each other, Ezelph being knocked backwards and Edge being sent off balance for a moment.
"You really have improved," says Edge, clapping at Ezelph's skill, "Why don't we end this now, with our strongest attacks!" Ezelph, after pulling himself off of the ground, nods. "Then you go first, show me what you can do." Ezelph nods once more before lifting his sword above his head and shifting his weight onto his back leg. I'll put everything I've got into this! Brilliant light begins wrapping around his weapon as he moves his sword to a reverse grip and equalizes his weight. He then seemingly teleports, confusing Edge.
"Shining Blade," Ezelph yells before appearing directly in front of Edge, surprising him, and slashing him repeatedly with a blade extended by light. He prepares to end his assault with a thrust, but is blocked by Edge's Laser Weapon and jumps away before Edge retaliates. Edge begins to huff and pant, which causes Ezelph to grin. I finally beat him! It took two years, but-
"Ex Healing," says Edge, recovering from all damage he took and wiping off Ezelph's grin. "I'll admit, that last one was pretty good. Now I'll show you my full power." Edge begins to float and glow with white light. A white sword forms in his free hand and the symbol on his hand begins to glow brightly. Ezelph quickly attempts to block the attack about to come, but he realizes that he has made a grave mistake when Edge appears five feet away from him with both swords ready.
"Scintillant Stream," Edge states calmly before commencing a flurry of extremely fast, accurate and powerful slashes and thrusts with his dual blades, ripping through Ezelph's defenses and subjecting him to enough pain to make him black out. Edge's light sword fades and he chuckles.
"He's gotten better," he says, "That last attack really did a number on me... Maybe I should wake him up before Reimi finds out."
"Before Reimi finds out about what," asks a serious woman, appearing behind Edge, who squeals in fright. He turns and sees a woman of Japanese descent with brown hair and eyes. She is wearing standard SRF Armor like Edge, but wields a bow instead of a sword and has on a wedding ring similar to Edge's.
"R-reimi," stammers Edge as his wife peers at him with an appraising gaze, "I-i thought you would be training Reyna. I just finished sparring with Ezelph... He went to sleep because he got tired." Reimi arches an eyebrow and looks at Edge with a calm, but stern expression.
"Really? You didn't use Scintillant Stream and knock him into a pain induced slumber," she asks in a way that makes Edge's blood run cold. Reimi always had that effect on him when she knew he had done something and was trying to cover it up.
"Anyways, how'd Reyna do," asks Edge attempting to change the subject, "Ezelph has improved a lot, he even has a signature move called Shining Blade. If he's improved this much, I could only imagine how much-"
"Answer. The. Damn. Question. Edge," commands Reimi, "You would want a repeat of of the incident on the Calnus, would you?" Edge breaks into a cold sweat at Reimi's deadly tone of voice and the memories of the incident, one which had nearly lost him something important to his well being. He gulps and slowly answers yes before immediately jumping away from Reimi as several lightning bolts strike around his previous position. He immediately bursts into a sprint as Reimi draws her bow and begins firing arrows as she pursues him.
Around this time, Ezelph begins to stir and Reyna, his oldest and best friend, staggers into the room, clutching his chest and gasping. Ezelph himself feels sore all over from Edge's last attack and has trouble standing. Damn, that hurt a lot! I'd probably be dead if Edge had been a real enemy.
"Rough training day," wheezes Reyna and Ezelph nods.
"Edge went all out on me and tore me to pieces," he responds shakily, "What about Reimi?"
"I managed to match her Crimson Squall with Empyrean Lotus and block her Chaotic Blossoms once, but when I tried countering with Jet Bolt she suddenly appeared behind me and hit me with Chaotic Blossoms and Seraphic Thunder. Getting struck by lightning hurts like hell," Reyna manages, "How do they even do that? One moment, they're a target for an attack and in the next, they're behind you and their attacks hurt a helluva lot more! How the hell is that fair in a sparring match!?"
"It's better than getting pulverized by Special Arts and Symbology," mutters Ezelph, catching Reyna's attention.
"Edge can use Symbology? That must suck," responds Reyna, now able to breathe and speak properly. Ezelph nods once again. "By the way, what did Edge do to you to knock you out like that? It must've been pretty fucking bad to knock you of all people down." Ezelph growls at Reyna's choice of words, but tells him about his sparring match nonetheless. Reyna winces at the mention of Edge's last two actions and slowly nods in understanding.
"Damn, that was a dick move to pull," he says after a moment, earning glare from Ezelph, "What? It's true. He healed himself, then beat the shit out of you with two swords after revealing that he was never going all out out against you. At least Reimi told me that she would hold back until I proved that I could stand more than her basic attacks." Ezelph sighs in annoyance at his friend's swearing, but proceeds to ask him about what his sparring match was like and cringes at the brutality of Reimi's attacks. For once, I'm happy that Edge is training me instead of Reimi.
"-And although I usually enjoy being that close to a woman's legs, she made me fear getting within range of her physical attacks. I could only imagine what Edge has to deal with," concludes Reyna, sighing. Damn, I wish I had gotten Edge, Meracle and Faize as trainers like Ezelph did. I'm stuck with the brutal, but hot, archer, the brutal, but hot, Symbologist and Death, the chick magnet, himself. I could only imagine what happens to Ezelph each day, but its probably better than getting beaten to a pulp twice, set on fire repeatedly, then ground into dust.
"Reyna, its almost time for our second sessions to begin. I think its Symbology next," Ezelph says and notices his friend pale considerably, "You alright? You look like you saw a ghost." Reyna couldn't answer his friend. There was only one person he feared more than Death himself and Reimi: Lymle Lemuri Phi, his Symbology instructor. It wasn't because of her looks, he thought that she was the most beautiful woman on the ship, but her training that made Arumat and Reimi look like loving and caring people when they trained others, which they were not.
"G-go on ahead of me, I have to pray for my lif- I mean adjust my bow," stammers Reyna, confusing Ezelph who shrugs walks to his next training room where an Eldarian with long green hair and regal armor with a beautify black cloak awaits him.
"Ah, you're here," says the Eldarian, standing up and greeting Ezelph, "Are you ready to continue your instruction in the ways of Symbology?" Ezelph nods and enters a meditative position as the Eldarian draws a large symbol in the air.
"Miss Phi, please be a little lenient," pleads Reyna as his instructor, a woman, around the age of twenty, with long, hazel, hair and matching eyes wearing a seemingly casual outfit and holding an ancient staff, walks into his second training room. He could feel himself swoon after her like many of the women on board the Palladion did for him, but he was constantly reminded by the void in her eyes that she didn't care if he or the majority of the Palladion's crew were harmed while she was busy.
"Lenience is for the weak, like Faize," Lymle says emotionlessly. Reyna always wondered why his Symbology instructor hated Faize: he was a good guy despite his past actions that nearly destroyed the universe. He prepared to say something when he saw the volley of fireballs aimed at him. Reacting quickly, Reyna manages to avoid the torrent of fireballs, but froze when he saw Lymle holding a giant, blue, ball of energy.
"Miss Phi, y-you wouldn't throw that w-would you," he partially asks, mostly hopes. Lymle only smiles, showing a bit more of her beauty and answering Reyna's question. Oh shit, she would! He quickly begins saying thing to deter Lymle's attack, mentioning his opinion of her beauty in the process.
"Thank you," she says accepting the compliment, which causes Reyna to sigh in relief before noticing that the ball of energy flying directly at him. Dick freaking move-
The ball of energy explodes brilliantly, nearly frying Reyna in the process. He lies there unmoving until Lymle speaks.
"You have five seconds before I summon Cerberus and cast Volcanic Burst to make you get up," she intones quietly, but her words are swiftly heeded by the burnt Reyna, who forces himself to stand and try to cast a symbol to help him out. He begins to feel warming energy pump through his burning body, oddly not worsening his condition. A complex symbol appears in front of him and he begins to chant the symbol's phrases until its name reaches his lips.
"Healing," he shouts and feels the warming energy intensify, but does not feel better. Rather, the spell targets Lymle and bathes her in healing light.
"Healing... That's a start, but you need to work on selecting your target," his instructor says seemingly satisfied. Then she summons another blue sphere. "Try again." She flicks the sphere at Reyna, who is unable to avoid the attack. He tenses up as the sphere engulfs him and explodes.
Faize sneezes in the middle of a concentration exercise, breaking Ezelph's concentration.
"I apologize. I think Lymle recently bad mouthed me," he says with an exasperated tone.
"Miss Lym," asks Ezelph, "You know her?"
"Yes, we have a... strained relationship," Faize says after a while, "Why don't we take a break? Do you want to know more about our shared history?" Ezelph nods and Faize talks about meeting Lymle on Lemuris millennia ago and their adventure with Edge and the others. He continues on, explaining his eventual corruption because of his morals, leading to his defeat and supposed death. He then talks about returning and meeting Lymle again after many years and their relationship after that, which led to their appearance in the distant future.
"I see," responds Ezelph after hearing Faize's story, "So basically, you love each other and are married, but your personalities collide to the point of the two of only having discussions in your private quarters... I won't comment on that part, but maybe the two of you should come to a compromise?" Faize chuckles.
"If only it were that simple," he says, "I wouldn't have her any other way and her, me. I think one day we'll be able to embrace each other, but- I just realized that Lymle trains Reyna. That could end badly."
"What are talking about, there's no way she would-," Ezelph stops when he sees the grave look on Faize's face and feels the training room shake, "You may be right, let's investigate." Faize nods and the two quickly reach Lymle and Reyna's training room, which is scorched.
"No, no, again," Lymle says as another healing symbol hits her. She prepares another blue sphere, but disperses it when she sees Faize. "Weakling, why are you here? I told you never to visit me before eleven at night."
"I know, but I needed to check on Reyna," Faize says, holding his ground.
"Oh, he's fine," Lymle says pointing at the semi smoldering, but standing, Reyna, who Ezelph quickly rushes to and checks for a pulse. "I moderated my power, so none of my attacks can kill him. He will be quite sore and sun burned tomorrow though." Reyna manages to give a weak thumbs up before fainting and getting carried to the medical bay by Ezelph.
"Lymle, you have to limit yourself more," begins Faize, but he is countered by Lymle and the two begin to argue over the way to teach and nurture young Symbologists. Ezelph sighs. They can sort it out themselves. I don't have time to deal with that.
A/N: And that's the first chapter of my Star Ocean story(which I hope interested you enough to review, positively or negatively, and wait for the second chapter, in which a few major events start.). There are probably a lot of confusing points, but those'll be addressed in future chapters. That being said, this will update less frequently than P3: R, which has a poll going on about pairings at the moment, will overall, but it should update fairly consistently.
Misc.: If you've played Star Ocean: The Last Hope, you'll probably notice a few points of confusion early on, such as the Main Characters from the first Star Ocean chronologically. That will be explained in due time as mentioned above. As for their personalities(And Abilities in Edge's case) being different from what you may remember, its for both light comic relief and to show that the cast has changed and matured over the years(These versions being around eight years older than their original counterparts.), but have retained some of their original personality from the game. Out of all of the characters mentioned, Lymle has changed the most, mentally and physically. She is not as uncaring and cruel as she is portrayed in this chapter, but that'll be explored later.
As for the two new characters mentioned in this chapter: How are they so far? What do you like and/or dislike about them? Can you make any assumptions about their roles in the future?
Stat wise, Reyna is in the lead, because of his much tougher training, and knows four special arts(Jet Bolt, Angelic Flare, Zakura Breaker and Empyrean Lotus) and one Symbol(Healing), while Ezelph knows three arts(Speed Edge, Spiraling Thunder and Shining Blade). This will change over time of course, but not until after the third party member joins the team.
-Azure Blade of Chaos