Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, or Xenosaga.
I didn't know where else to put this so I decided to put this in Eternal Cycle. I've decided to do a continuation of Alex's story. The basic summary is below. The story will be called Sequence of Errors. Also, if you haven't beaten Xenosaga III yet I recommend not reading this because there are many spoilers. Since this is a sequel to Eternal Cycle, it would be best if you read Destinies Gone Awry, Dark Horizon, and Eternal Cycle before reading this. Of course, if you already have read those then feel free to keep on reading this.
Alex, the former Moderator of the Eternal Sphere agreed to test out a new virtual network. But he wasn't prepared to go on a journey through his memories, let alone encounter an entity capable of ripping the very fabric of time and space asunder.
Preview-
Outter Space – A soundless, dark void. It stretches out millions of light years and in it lies countless stars and planets. On those planets you can find a vast variety of beings, each individual having dreams, memories, and freewill. They are miles apart but they remain connected by bonds that cannot be seen, not in this dimension anyway. Even after all I've seen, I still cannot comprehend the scale of the Universe. I don't think anyone can. There are many secrets in this Universe, some we know and understand, some we don't quite understand, and many that we never will know or understand. I think this is good, because there are some secrets that are better left undiscovered; because most of the time they are extremely dangerous.
An Excerpt from Document A789236
Author – Alex Rothrock
Date of publication: Unknown
I woke up and looked around in the room without sitting up. The clock said it was about 6:15 AM. Since we are in space there is no sunrise to wake up to, only the hum of machines and the Logical Drive (the engine). It's been 3 months now since we began our search for Lost Jerusalem – Earth. We had not found it yet, but we continued to search. No one knew how long this would take, and we all knew what we were getting ourselves into. Everyone at the Dammerung and other places around the galaxy would contact us from time to time. Things are going well over there, apparently the information I gave them is helping them develop a new network in place of the UMN.
I looked over to my left to see Shelly still fast asleep. Speaking of her, our relationship is actually going pretty well. This is my very first time being a boyfriend so I was worried that I was going to screw up big time, but that didn't happen. It's actually pretty simple once you figure out the ropes. Of course by now everyone is aware of our relationship and they're saying that we make a good couple. The only other couple at the moment are Shion and Allen, who are also in a good relationship... even if they are a little mushy gushy from time to time. I knocked myself out of my train of thought and closed my eyes, it was too early in the morning to be getting up yet. I fell asleep and I woke up not much later as the door burst open and the lights turned on. Shion came running into the room.
"Good morning! Rise and shine!" She exclaimed. By now, both Shelley and I were sitting up and awake. I looked at the clock again as I rubbed my eyes.
"Ugh, Shion it's only 7 in the morning. Why did you do that?" I asked.
"Don't tell me you already forgot, Alex. Today is THE day," responded Shion with a look of surprise on her face. I scratched my head for a moment. I looked up as I remembered.
"Oh! That's right."
"The new virtual network testing day," said Shelly.
"So, it's finally finished?" I asked. Shion nodded.
"Yes, now all we need is for it to be tested. Which is where you come in, Alex," stated Shion. Back when we were developing a new network I had volunteered to test it by entering the capsule we had made and entering the network. I did that often enough during the days of the Eternal Sphere, so one more test for old time's sake couldn't hurt, right? "Anyway, get dressed and ready. We'll have some breakfast first and then we will test it." With that, Shion left our room and the door closed. I looked over at Shelly and smiled.
"Well, good morning," I said.
"Good morning," she said with a smile. I quickly pecked her on the lips and stood up and stretched. I began to change into my uniform. "Do you think you are gong to need that armor?"
"You never know. That network is designed just like the Encephalon. That means I may run into some old memories. Better safe than sorry," I said as I loaded my revolver and placed it into it's holder.
"I guess so. Even though it is a controlled experiment with strict limitations." Shelley and I finished getting ready and we left the small cabin that we stayed in. The hallway of the Elsa hadn't really changed much. The large green wireframe hologram of the ship was still floating in front of the door that lead to the bridge. The cafe was on the other end of the ship. Shelley and I entered the cafe to see everyone already there eating breakfast. Shion, Allen, Jr, Mary, Captain Matthews, Tony, Hammer, Professor, and Scott were all sitting in the same area, eating.
"Morning, you two," said Jr as he placed his cup down.
"Morning," I said as Shelley and I sat down in the last two open seats.
"So today is the day, huh?" Asked Mary.
"Yeah, finally. Time to see the fruits of our labor," said Allen with a look of relief on his face.
"You sure you want to do this, Alex? First time tests always have the chance of going horribly wrong," said Captain Matthews.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I haven't hesitated about it once," I responded.
"You can't be a good test subject if you lack love and courage," said Professor.
"Yeah! Love and Courage advances science and technology further and further!" Chimed Scott. He and Professor started laughing together. After eating a biscuit, a piece of bacon, and one sausage patty, I quickly downed a cup of coffee and stood up.
"Well, shall we go get this started?" I asked. We all went to the back hangar, which still contained a lot of Sis equipment, even her maintenance bed. We decided to add another function to her maintenance bed; it was now the pod for this experiment. Shion, Allen, Professor, and Scott all walked over to the terminal and began booting up the network. As I saw the equipment memories of Sis came back to me.
Flashback
"Alex, I have a new mission for you. Go with Shion and the others, find Lost Jerusalem," said Sis.
"W-what are you saying, Sis?" I asked. She embraced me with her one arm. She smiled warmly.
"I'm so glad to have seen you once again, I'm glad to see you are doing well. And that you will continue to do well. We'll meet again someday, I know it. So until then... goodbye, my little brother." With that she approached the cliff. I could see her activating her Phase Transfer cannon.
End of Flashback
I shook my head and sighed. It was just a memory, no point in getting upset. Sis may be gone, but her spirit still watches over us. I felt Shelley place a hand on my shoulder.
"Alex? Is something wrong?" She asked. I shook my head.
"No, I just had a trip down memory lane," I said.
"Okay, Alex! It's ready," said Shion. I nodded and approached Sis' maintenance bed. I placed my hand on the side.
"I hope you don't mind me using this, Sis," I said under my breath. I got onto it and lay down. Shelley approached me and bent down so that she was level with my head.
"Good luck," she said as she kissed me on the lips.
"Thanks, I think this will go well."
"Well, everything is ready. I just hope it will all work," said Allen.
"We double checked all the coding, what could possibly go wrong?" Asked Shion.
"Well for one we're not entirely sure if the network will interact with KOS-MOS' maintenance bed. It'll either transport Alex into the network... or the electrical overcharge will result in an explosion."
"I didn't... need to hear that," I said while trying to keep my face expressionless.
"Don't worry, Allen. We did all this together, and as a team we can make anything work perfectly," said Shion. The two of them smiled at each other.
"Oh no, here they go again," groaned Tony.
"So, about that test..." I said. Allen looked over at me and nodded.
"Right, let's get started," he said. He typed something on the console and the maintenance bed began to close. Just as I was about to be encased in total darkness, I looked over at Shelley one last time and smiled. Then I heard the pressurized door of the maintenance bed seal. A screen popped up of Shion and Allen.
"So how is it in there?" Asked Shion.
"If I was claustrophobic, I would be having a fear induced seizure right now. I can see why Sis used this thing only for sleeping. I can barely move in here," I said.
"Don't worry, you won't be in there for long. The transportation is about to occur in the next few seconds," said Allen. The screens turned off and I felt something touch the back of my neck. I felt an odd liquid like sensation shoot through my nervous system as everything went white. When I opened my eyes again I was standing on a grass field with a gust of wind blowing by.
"It looks like we have a success on our hands," said Shion a few seconds later. I nodded.
"Yeah, it looks really good. So what's next?" I asked.
"Next you'll select anywhere you've been from your memories and type it into the console in front of you," said Allen. I looked over to see a holoscreen less than a foot away fro me. I approached it and typed in a location.
"Location confirmed, now transporting to Radiant Garden," said the computer. Suddenly there was static coming from the channel.
"I'm getting some sort of odd reception, like a weak signal," I said. There was dead silence. "Guys?" Suddenly there was some strange laughter on the channel. It sounded odd, the voice was fluctuating between female and male and it sounded almost robotic. Then all of a sudden I was teleported into some sort of small tunnel made entirely of wires and the robotic sounds continued as I fell through this tunnel. Finally I landed on something that was soft and organic. I stood up and looked around I was now in a very strange place. All of the ground was made out of this strange red organic substance. There were branches and arms of this stuff shooting out of the ground and forming rings all over the place. One of the rings was filled with glowing purple light. In the middle of this place was a console. "Where am I?"
"Alex? Are you still there?" Asked Shion. I nodded.
"Yeah I'm here."
"Alright good, we have a video feed of you as well now," said Allen.
"So you can see this weird place?" I asked.
"Yes, and that is not a place we designed," said Shion.
"So what happened?"
"We don't know. Something inside the system caused the network to crash but then it rebooted itself."
"So the test is a failure then."
"Unfortunately so," said Allen. "Hold on, we're going to pull you out." There was a pause. "Oh no." I knew what the problem was, but I had to confirm it, to make sure.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Bad news, it's not letting us pull you out." I let out a sigh.
"I knew it. Is there anyway I can get out of here?" I asked
"Yes, based on a quick analysis it looks like this area is the nexus of a certain amount of time worth of your memories. Those circular things are portals that will lead you to various parts of your memories. Based on this it looks like there is about a year's worth of important memories. By going through all the portals, power should be restored to the teleportation system. When you enter your memories, you will be temporarily restored to your state at the time of the memory. So you may still have the Dark Horizon in certain memories. But when you exit the portal, you will return to your current state," said Allen.
"How long will all of this take?" I asked.
"In real time, about 12 hours unless things get bad in there."
"We'll look into what caused this dilemma, in the mean time get moving. You have a long trip down memory lane," said Shion.
"I'm gettng serious deja vu here," I said. Just as I was about to approach the first portal I heard the COM Channel open.
"Almost forgot, at times there may be some glitches that occur during your travels, mainly memory glitches. Also, we will have video feeds of everything that's going on, but only outside of the portals. Once you step into a portal you are on your own."
"Got it," I said. The channel closed and I faced the first portal as I stepped up towards it. I took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." I stepped into the light and everything was engulfed in that light.
Sequence of Errors, coming soon.