Destinies gone Awry

By Zexion72

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean. I never have and I never will.

Prologue:

I was just another ordinary person living a normal life. My name is Alex Rothrock, I am 23 years old and I work at the Sphere Company. I am part of the team that designed the Eternal Sphere and I am a System Moderator. Though now a days I am working on the Executioner project. At first I didn't want to get involved in it, but then my best friend, Luther, assigned me the job of designing the body structure of the Executioners and what they look like. Since he is the Owner I have to do anything he tells me to do. I take pride in my work, but somehow it doesn't feel right. Regardless of how I felt about the Executioners I continued to work on them. But on that day, everything would change...

Chapter 1: The new job

I had just gotten a call from Luther, he said that he wanted to see me. I got up from my seat and walked out of the room, down the hallway, and towards the elevator. I selected the highest floor and walked into the elevator. I never understood why they made the Sphere company so big. I know that the Eternal Sphere hard drive is several floors large but what are we going to do with 211 floors? I haven't even been in half of them. Not even Luther has been on all 211 floors. I walked into Luther's office, he was sitting at his computer typing something.

"Ah, there you are Alex," said Luther as he looked over at me.

"Hey Luther, so there is something you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked.

"Yes. But first, it's lunch time. I don't know about you but I am starting to get hungry," said Luther as he got up from his chair.

"Of course I'm hungry! I skipped breakfast this morning so I could upload E.B.S. (Enforcer Body Structure)5823 and E.B.S.6497. They are due today, right?" I asked. Luther sighed.

"I appreciate your dedication to the project, but you should take care of yourself more. Killing yourself over work won't get you very far."

"I know, it's just that... well..." I paused and looked down at the ground. What the Executioners were being used for weighed heavily on me, these things that I am designing are going to kill so many innocent people. I looked up and continued speaking. "I want to finish this project as soon as possible. It's hard to work on it because of what it's for." Luther didn't say anything for a few seconds, but the look in his eyes gave me the hint that he really didn't care what the Executioners were going to do once we release them into the Milky Way Galaxy.

"Blair was talking to be about this recently. But if we don't do something about this problem, not only will it cause a bunch of bugs in the Eternal Sphere that could lead to it crashing but it will be possible for beings from the Eternal Sphere to come into our universe and kill anyone they find. I am sure you don't want that, Alex." The thought of something like that happening makes me shudder.

"No... I don't want that," I slowly replied. On the other hand, Luther does have a point. If we don't do something about this problem the beings of the Eternal Sphere would be able to find away into our universe, and who knows what they would do if they found out the truth about their universe. The Executioners may be a needlessly violent way of solving this problem but we don't have a choice. We can't cut off the Eternal Sphere from the terminals in our world, that would trap so many of our people in the Eternal Sphere. Not to mention that doing that would also delete the Eternal Sphere, resulting in those people who are trapped being deleted as well. If we delete the Eternal Sphere then the Sphere company will lose it's biggest money maker. For some reason we are unable to delete the Milky Way Galaxy. All of that said the only way to get rid of this problem is to use the Executioners.

"Anyway, I have our lunches at my desk. We can talk about why I called you here while we eat," said Luther in an attempt to change the subject.

"Sounds like a good idea," I said as my stomach let out a large growl. We sat down and started eating. At least the food served at the Sphere company is good, I have heard that some of the companies in the Lost City don't provide very good food.

"So I suppose you want to know why I called you here," said Luther. I looked up from my food.

"Yes. I suppose this isn't an invitation to eat lunch with you or something," I said. Luther chuckled a little bit.

"Oh, come on, Alex. Is there some sort of rule that says friends can't eat together?" Luther cleared his throat and continued talking. "Anyway, you're right. I called you because I have a job that I want to offer to you. Of course, it is optional."

"Do you want me to design new types of Executioners?" I asked figuring that this was the new job.

"No, we're fine with what you have made already. The new job involves the recent upgrade in the Eternal Sphere."

"You mean the upgrade that will allow System Administrators and Moderators to access the new debug tool anywhere in the Eternal Sphere?" I asked out of curiosity. Luther nodded.

"That's right. You see we can't really test it until someone goes into the Eternal Sphere and tries it out. Plus we need to test the new safety mode we have added into the coding on each and ever Executioner."

"Safety mode?"

"That's right. It was programed into the Executioners so that if any of the staff has to go into the Milky Way Galaxy for any reason they can do it without getting killed by an Executioner."

"So you want me to test out both of those things?"

"That's right," said Luther with a grin. "So, will you do the job?" I thought about it for a moment. It's something different from my daily job, so why not?

"Yes, I will take the job."

"Excellent. Anyway, let's go to my terminal." Luther and I stood up and walked through the door that lead to the room with all of the terminals. Inside, several staff members were at the computers while Azazer, Berial, Belzeber, and Blair were standing around waiting for Luther and I. Blair turned around to face us as the door opened.

"There you two are," said Blair.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Is everything ready for the experiment?" Asked Luther.

"Yes, everything is ready. We can start whenever you want to," said Blair as she pointed over at the main computer.

"Alright, then let's get started," said Luther as he walked over to the main computer. He looked over at me. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get into the terminal." I nodded and walked into the terminal.

"Terminal activated. Location set. Place of transportation: Milky Way Galaxy. Planet: Elicoor II. Area: Palmira plains," said one of the staff members as they typed the data into the computer.

"Coordinates locked on, now starting preparation sequence," said Blair. On the main computer the following message popped up: ALEX ROTHROCK... SYSTEM MODERATOR... SUCCESSFULLY LOGGED IN... NOW STARTING TRANSPORTATION... Suddenly I felt that feeling of being transported and within a second I was at the specified location. Palmira plains were large and filled with life, places like these make me proud of my work on the Eternal Sphere (excluding the Executioners).

"How are things down there?" Asked Luther.

"Good," I replied.

"I'm sure you know how to access the debugging menu, so bring it up now."

"Okay," I said as I slowly rose my hand up. A screen appeared in front of me. I browsed around on the various menus to see what sort of things I could do with this debugging tool.

"So, what do you think of the new debugging tool?" Asked Blair.

"It's very nice, a lot better than the old version. The fact that you can customize how big the screen is and what it looks like is a nice touch," I said as I deactivated the debugging tool.

"Well, it seems to work fine. Now for the next half of this test," said Azazer.

"Alex, has anyone ever told you that you are reckless?" Asked Belzeber.

"Yeah, Luther has called me that loads of times," I said as I folded my arms.

"Loading Enforcer into Elicoor II..." Said Blair. An Enforcer appeared in front of me suddenly. Now it's time to see how this turns out. Meanwhile, back in the Sphere Company, Blair was looking at the data on her screen when suddenly another red box popped up and a little warning signal started beeping. "Hmmmm..." Said Blair as she read the text. Berial and Azazer turned around and walked over to Blair.

"Is something wrong?" Asked Berial.

"Yes, it's this," replied Blair as she pointed at the text. Berial read what it was saying.

"Error in sector 685D3C?"

"It's probably just a little bug caused by use of symbology in the Eternal Sphere," commented Azazer.

"I hope your right," said Blair. Back on Elicoor II, the Enforcer looked at me. For a few seconds there was silence. Then the Enforcer spoke.

"Welcome, System Moderator Alex," said the Enforcer in a gruff voice. "What's brings you here to this region of the Eternal Sphere? This galaxy is going to be destroyed soon."

"I am aware of that, I was sent down here to test the new debugging tool," I replied. The Enforcer nodded and then it disappeared.

"Test over, alright we will pull you ASAP," said Luther.

"Okay, take your time," I said.

"Now starting transportation process..." Said Blair. The blue square appeared below my feet. Suddenly I heard an alarm go off in the communicator.

"What's going on up there?" I asked.

"Some sort of glitch has occured! It's completely destroying the transportation system! The transportation command is being rejected!" Exclaimed Blair.

"What? How can this be? This is the most guarded and protected terminals in the entire building!" Exclaimed Luther as he spun around to look over at his Sister.

"It must be that error from earlier." The screen suddenly went completely red and it was flashing: "System Crash".

"No! Alex is still in there! If the system crashes he will be locked into the Eternal Sphere!" Exclaimed Luther as he started typing something furiously in an attempt to override the crash. Suddenly all the of the screens in the room shut off. "No!" The square I was standing on suddenly started flashing and I was shot off of it by a bunch of energy bolts. I landed on the ground and slowly got up.

"Owww... what the hell happened?" I asked.

"We don't know. Not only has the system crashed but now you are locked into the Eternal Sphere," said Luther trying to sound as calm as possible.

"WHAT? Locked in the Eternal Sphere? No!" I exclaimed. Oh great, now I am stuck in this virus filled galaxy where the Enforcers are about to be unleashed, situation: I'm kinda screwed.

"Don't worry, there is a way out of the Eternal Sphere without using a terminal," said Blair.

"Really?" This is good, so maybe I am not screwed.

"There is a device called the Time Gate on planet Styx. If you use the debugging tool you should be able to convert it into a portal back to our world," said Blair, crushing all of my hope.

"Styx? But I am on Elicoor II! Why did it have to be on Styx?"

"It's the way we designed it I'm afraid."

"Alex, you will most likely need this," said Luther. Suddenly a large box appeared on the ground. I walked over to it and opened it. As I saw what was inside I grinned. There was a metal pole with a small button in the middle of it.

"My energy swallow! Thanks, this will come in handy," I said.

"We are going to work on reloading the system and we are going to upload the Executioners into the Milky Way. For your sake you had better get to Styx as quick as you can. Good luck, Alex," said Luther.

"Wait, Luther! How am I supposed to get to Styx?" There was no reply. "Damn! Looks like I am going to have to explore this Elicoor II place and try to find a way to Styx." As I started walking I looked to my left to see a large spider crawling towards me. "Good, I need to fight something. I am a little bit pissed off at the fact that I am stuck here and I don't' know how to get to my destination." I pressed the button on my swallow and two red energy blades shot out of both ends of the swallow. The spider slowly started moving faster. I charged towards it and stabbed it in the face with my swallow. The energy blade went through the spider's face, killing it. I deactivated my swallow. "Ha! You thought you stood a chance against me! You thought I was easy prey, huh? Well guess WHAT, I am not easy prey! I have been trained to fight and I spare with Luther on a regular basis!"

I continued walking across the palmira plains. I stopped walking and activated the debugging tool. I set it to a smaller size and then I activated the map function. I started browsing around the map of the current area. "Let's see, there is a nearby town called Arias in this direction." I deactivated the debugging tool. "Once I go there I should ask some people a few questions to get a better understanding of this place."

"You know, talking to yourself like that isn't a good idea. It tends to freak people out," said a voice behind me. I shot around to see a group of three people behind me. I had not even noticed them coming. The one on the left was a large, muscular man with blonde hair. The one in the middle was a smaller man with blue hair. The one on the far right was a woman and had red hair. The one thing I noticed in particular about the woman with red hair were the symbology symbols tattooed on her legs. If the people of the Eternal Sphere have gained this much knowledge about symbology than the worst cast scenario is even closer to happening than we thought.

"You don't look like you are from this area," said the woman with red hair.

"Yeah, I'm not. I'm from another country," I said.

"So who exactly are you?" Asked the man with blue hair.

"The name's Alex Rothrock, and you guys are?" I asked.

"Cliff Fittir," said the large man with blonde hair.

"My name is Fayt Leingod," said the man with blue hair.

"I'm Nel Zelpher," said the woman with red hair.

"Nice to meet you three," I said. Okay, in truth I was lying. I really wasn't happy about meeting people from the Milky Way.

"Likewise. So you said that you wanted to find out what is going on this region, right?" Asked Nel.

"That's right."

"Then come with us, we know who you can ask your questions to." Well, at least I will gain some information, that's a start.

"Well then, in that case I will gladly accompany you guys."

"The more the merrier," said Fayt with a smile.

"Indeed." We started walking towards Arias. Nel looks like she is from this world, but Cliff and Fayt... they could prove to be quite useful. If I play my cards right I might be able to find a way to Styx. Of course I will have to get some background information on them first.

At least, that's what I had planned in the beginning. I could never have imagined that things would go as they did.

So what will happen next? Find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review.