Disclaimer: This story is purely a work of fiction. The characters within belong to Square Enix and Tri-Ace. And yes, technically, this is a cross-over from Till End of Time and The Last Hope. No, it's not as bad as my last one. WARNING! This story contains gay sex, strait sex, sex that could be considered a form of bestiality, swearing, death, and otherwise crude humor that could possibly be taken offensively. Please be aware of these facts if you wish to continue reading. - Notice! I've finally plucked up the courage to try playing Star Ocean The Last Hope International Version. Now to actually finish it. :) Oh, this is a multi-chapter story, so I'm only putting the warnings at the beginning. However, short updates on how good (or bad) I'm doing playing the game will appear briefly at the end of each chapter. Star Ocean: Break in the Eternal Sphere Program Chapter One: The Crack Happens Edge Maverick was a lot of things. Impatient, hot-headed, thick-headed at times, quick-tempered now and then, but never in his life did he think he could be crazy. Scratch that one, he'd been a dreamer ever since he could walk, but to see something that shouldn't be there, that was what was bothering him now. "Edge?" asked one of his crew members. He turned and shook his head. He had to be seeing things. Faize was dead. "I'm alright, Baccus." The tall, muscular Morphus male nodded. He'd returned to his original body after the events on Nox Obscurous, and now he and his wife, Milly, were crew members on board the Calnus mark 2. The pair were only two of four Morphus on the ship. The other two were Myuria and an orphan girl she'd adopted after their original adventure. Mia, as the girl was named, was six, and already was a better symbologist than Edge was. But, that wasn't hard. Lymle Limuri Phi was also a member of the crew, and at her adult height of . . . 4 foot 9 inches . . . she wasn't that bad. She taught Mia when Myuria wasn't, and the two got along great. Lymle had been the last person to see Faize, in a dream, where he told her everything was alright, and placed a white flower in her hair. Lymle's official job on the Calnus 2 was to keep the item creation notes in order and keep the ship in proper supply. Somehow, some of that supply also included six crates of baking supplies so Reimi could make cookies. Speaking of Reimi, she was no longer Reimi Saionji, but Reimi . . . Thanatos. Things hadn't worked out well between her and Edge romantically, but they had tried. They had been talking about getting married when things had initially soured. Reimi's mother continued to nag at both of them on how they would have behave and do things to have a real family. Her constant complaining had initially led Edge to the point of suicide, and that's what had called it quits for them. Reimi couldn't handle the pressure, and Edge wouldn't stand up for himself against her mother, who had raised both of them. She had run off, clinging to the last man Edge had expected her to go to, Arumat P. Thanatos. Arumat had told Reimi's mother where to stuff her complaints, and within a month, the pair were wed. And that was where things got humorous for the pair. Since Eldarians had been genetically grown in labs for years, Arumat had been a little . . . er, unskilled. But Reimi was gentle and kind to him, and Arumat, unused to the gentleness, had at first taken offense. But he knew he cared for Reimi, and listened to her explanation, and it had actually worked out. And now, even though they were part of the Calnus 2 crew, there was going to be a little Thanatos coming soon. Mericle wasn't part of the crew, but another felpool who looked a lot like her named Miracle was. Where Mericle had been blue and purple, Miracle was red and pink, respectively. She was playful, cute, but always alert and ready to learn. It was amazing how she and Baccus could always keep the ship repaired. And that was it. That was the entirety of the crew of the Calnus mark 2. They'd been exploring, on rescue missions, and even just shipped cargo together. "Captain, I'm picking up a strange signal." said Reimi. "Alright, let's hear it." Edge replied. "Help ****-is is F-*******, Doc-*********, I am in ne-**********-tance. Plea-*******-lp, the thing is sta-******-ack. It's all tha-*******-en creature's arrival, we a-*****-med." "It seemingly repeats, but there's a lot of static." Reimi finished. "I have coordinates for where it's coming from." Edge nodded. "Well, crew, sounds like this person's in trouble. And it sounds like there's more than one. Do we help?" "Yup." said Lymle. Beside her, Miracle and Mia nodded in agreement. "I agree, we should help." said Baccus. His wife nodded as well. "Do as you wish, lad." said Arumat. "I wouldn't mind." Myuria smiled. "Could be fun." "Well, Edge?" Reimi asked. Her rounded figure turned to face him. "Let's go, to find out what's going on down there." Edge replied. `~`~`~`~O_O~`~`~`~` The ground was wrought with shallow cracks, some filled with liquids that might better be left undiscovered. Lush plant life clung to the rocks walls of sheer cliffs, but nothing grew along the ground. A few lizards crawled along the leaves, but they weren't dangerous. Lymle looked around. "The plants are colored like rainbows." she observed. "Pretty lizard." Mia smiled, looking at a red gecko-like critter. "Come on." said Myuria. They continued walking, finding parts of a badly patched together Eldarian base stuck into the front of a cavern. There were chunks of ship hull welded into place in some spots, and several cords going out to solar panels standing on spikes well above the foliage. Edge blinked. He was sure he was seeing things again. A figure, only illuminated where there would be shadows, beckoned them into the makeshift shelter. There was a light laughter, just before the image vanished from sight, and a huge plume of smoke came popping out of what might have been a hole in the upper-side of the cave. "You guys saw that, right?" Edge asked. "The plume of smoke? Who couldn't." said Milly. They headed into the cavern. Inside was . . . strange. There was a small living area set up that suggested ten or so people lived here, however, only one bed looked used. Beyond that was a hallway, and this was where things started to get less nice. There were chains secured to the rock, some lying on the ground, evidence they'd been pulled out of the wall by the prisoner that the chain once held. There were patches of dried blood everywhere, but that was where things got a bit odd. Edge ran his hand over the wall, pulling his hand back. There were light shimmers on his fingers, but only for a moment before they faded away, showing blood on his hand instead. "YAAH!" Edge cried, mostly out of surprise. Edge. He looked around. Edge. "Edge!" Arumat whacked him with the blunt side of his scythe. "Your hand. Is it wounded?" Edge looked back at his hand. "I don't think that's my blood." he admitted. "Also, did any of you hear something, like an echo or a whisper?" The others shook their heads. Just then, a tall man wearing glasses that made his eyes look huge rounded the corner. "Don't touch the walls." he said. "They'll make things . . . weird." "Uh, huh." said Myuria. "Are you the one that sent out the distress call?" "Yes. Yes, I sent out a distress call. That green creature, it . . . it cracked it." the man said. "Why don't you start with your name?" Edge suggested. "I'm Captain Edge Maverick." "Edge?" the man asked. He looked at Edge a little closer, his movements rather sudden and jerky. "Edge, you say? Hmm, the red said he had a friend by that name. So did green. The blue, too, but she's gone. They're all gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone. But the green one, he still taunts me. He tries to lure me into the mess, but I'm no fool. If I go in there, it's death for sure." Arumat grabbed the man by the coat collar and pulled him away from Edge. "Your name." he growled. "I'm Dr. Leonne." "Were you researching or studying something here?" Myuria asked. "Yes, yes! It's a facination to behold!" Dr. Leonne crowed. "What was it?" Baccus asked. "My marvel! MINE!" the doctor hissed. "But, I guess it's worth showing. The crack is most strange. Only since then did they go away." He led them all down a long tunnel. Edge. The blonde looked around. "Did you hear that?" he asked Lymle. "Hear what?" Lymle asked. They suddenly came to a stop in front of a large, smooth crystal wall, like the smooth cut of a geode stone. The only flaw in it was a crack, right in the center of the surface. "Wow." said Reimi. "What is this?" "It's the looking glass, dearie." Dr. Leonne said, drawing himself up and pointing to the ceiling like the answer had been so obvious. "Just look." He waved his fingers at the surface. "Unless he's been by again, it should work just fine." The group looked, and suddenly, the image wavered, like ripples on a watery surface. The image suddenly changed to a battlefield, with knights on dragons, and a huge cannon on the back of the biggest dragon any of them had ever seen. It was firing at a ship of some sort, and managed to drive it away. All at once, part of the image seemed to come at them, causing them to back away. Like a grasping hand, it reached out for them. A shimmering figure appeared, the light and visible parts coming from where shadows would normally have been. It pushed Edge away from the grasping hand, getting grabbed instead. Edge reached for the figure, his fingers grasping around something that didn't seem quite there, and then, the figure was gone. There was a sound, like cloth hitting the floor, and Edge looked at what was in his hand. "You could have told us it was dangerous." Arumat snapped at Dr. Leonne. "The red said the same, just before he went away forever." Dr. Leonne grinned. "It likes fresh meat." "Edge?" Lymle asked. She gasped when she saw what was in Edge's hand. "What is it?" Reimi asked. "The green one." Edge asked. "Would his real name have been Faize?" He held out the black cloak for the others to see. A.N. - As promised, here's how my playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope has gone. I suck! While the first hour of the game was mostly spent watching the cinematic to get to Aeos, I literally fought every monster I could find on my way to the SRF-005 Eremiya and only managed to get up to level 6 (I'd hoped for 8, since my ability to fight is terrible) before being almost wasted by the first boss. And then, doing the same tactic walking back, I barely hit level 7 for Edge and Reimi, and Faize is still back at level 5. So, yeah, I need to do a lot of leveling up, since I'm usually bad at these kinds of games.