disclaimer: I own nothing...

Prologue

"Another boring, pointless day..."

A young girl sighed as she stared blankly out of her window. The dark night sky of Federation Station #17 was a serene and peaceful sight. But to the little girl it was just something that she had been seeing for nearly 9 years every night, and therefore she didn't think much of it. She was leaning against the window sill with her head propped on one hand, while mindlessly playing around with her long blue hair with the other, looking more or less bored to death. The silence was broken by a woman's voice calling out from downstairs.

"Maria, dinner's ready!"

"Yes, mom!" Maria answered back.

9 year old Maria Traydor was a resident of Federation Station #17 . Her parents, Richard and Jessie Traydor, who were a Federation officer and a research scientist respectively, were almost always busy with work. This meant that little Maria was stuck in the house by herself most of the time. This, combined with the rather routine life on the Station, tended to drive her crazy, since there was really nothing to do. After all, it WAS a military base, so it wasn't like living in a city or anything. The dullness left her seriously wishing that she at least had a sibling or something.

Maria, deciding that she had better get downstairs before her mother repeats herself, slowly started to straighten up. It was rare for her mother to come home this early, so the little girl also wanted to make most of it. All of a sudden, there was a deafening noise in the air as if someone blew up a bomb inside her house, accompanied by several pillars of lightning. Taken off guard by this sudden phenomenon, poor Maria fell backwards and stared open-mouthed as more lightning came crashing down from the once peaceful night sky. But this was most unnatural. She was currently on one of the Federation Stations, which were man-made, and therefore lacked natural phenomenons such as lightnings, rain, storms, and weather in general. Moreover, the streaks of lightning seemed to be appearing out of thin air instead of from a cloud like it normally should.

Soon, everyone was looking at the relentless lightning with either awe or fear, until there was one final, huge pillar of light that came crashing down. The bright light forced Maria to shield her eyes with her arms, and even then it took her a while to see properly again. At the exact spot where the last burst of light hit was a sizable crater. Fortunately, the Station was still functioning properly with no problem at all, so the damage wasn't very serious. It did, however, attract quite a bit of attention, including that of the little blue-head. The moment she came to her senses, Maria raced out of her room and towards the remains of the mysterious thunderstorm.

Numerous people had already gathered around the gaping hole, all whispering and pointing at something in the center. Upon closer inspection, Maria saw that it was big slab of rock, a little larger than her father. A moment later, her parents came rushing in with members of the Station's research lab, and told Maria to go back inside before examining the strange object. Her curiosity being stronger than her obedience, Maria just watched as the research team worked on extracting the large stone and transferred it to their small lab on the Station, where they would examine it further.

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Four days have passed since the arrival of the "rock". By now, the people had begun discussing amongst themselves as to what the strange lump of rock was. A meteorite perhaps? Maybe it was something that got mixed in during the construction of the Station, and was unearthed by the force of the lightning? Some people thought it was something significant, while others dismissed it as nothing more than a piece of space rubble. In any case, Maria was spared from her boredom during this time, as she spent a good deal of time and effort trying to figure out what the object was. Her mother had been studying the rock without rest, but all she and her fellow researchers found out was that it wasn't composed of any material that was known so far. On top of that, whatever it was made up of rejected any form of probe, whether it be a simple x-ray or some kind of radiation, so the interior couldn't be studied either.

One day while Maria was studying in her room, she heard her mother come inside the house. Most unusual, since she should be at the lab right now with all the commotion with the "rock". Maybe they finally solved its mysteries! Maria ran down the stairs in excitement and found her mother looking for something on her work table.

"Mom?" Jessie turned around to see her daughter looking up at her.

"Oh, hi sweetie, I forgot to bring an important data disk, so I had to come back." She looked a bit embarrassed at having made such a simple mistake. Maria's excitement died down as she realized that the "rock" was still a mystery.

Jessie, having finally found the disk in question, told Maria that she will probably staying late at work again, and so will her father, and apologized for their absence and left in a hurry.

"Now be a good girl while I'm gone".

"Ok." Maria replied as her mother headed off to the lab.

Back at the lab, the mysterious rock was situated in the middle of the observation room. While everyone was busy analyzing some data or another, Jessie was taking her time thoroughly examining the object in question. At a glance, there was nothing remarkable about it. It was just a plain, big old rock. After circling it about 3 times, Jessie noticed something peculiar. There was a faint mark at one section of the rock that somewhat resembled a circle with a slash through it (like the "none" sign in math). Mentally scolding herself for not having noticed such a thing until now, she carefully traced the marking with her finger.

She certainly did not expect it glow afterwards. A faint golden light glowed from the marking, before a small crack appeared around it. Jessie began panicking as the crack continued to spread wider and wider. Soon the entire staff noticed the glow and the crack as well, and the researchers all gathered around the rock, not knowing what to do. The crack spread further and further throughout the rock, with the eerie gold light flowing out of it.

At last, the rock shattered, or rather, exploded, into pieces. The scattered chunks of stone struck several of the researchers present at the area, knocking out many of those unfortunate enough to be hit by one. However, people were too busy staring at the golden light in the center where the rock had been just a few seconds ago to make any move. Richard and Jessie, the only ones who didn't end up as targets of the rubble, had to cover their eyes, as the light was just as strong as the one four days ago. When the light dissipated at last, no one (at least those who were still conscious) could suppress a gasp of surprise.

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Maria was reading a book by herself when there was a loud, impatient knock at her door. It was strange, since the only reason people came to her house was when they had some business with her parents, usually her mother. And Jessie did say that she and Richard would be coming late tonight, and it was still fairly early.

The blue haired girl cautiously approached the door and asked, "who is it?" tentatively.

"Maria dear, it's us, could you open the door quickly!" Maria was somewhat nervous since her father's voice sounded like he was in a hurry.

When she opened the door, the first thing she noticed was what her father was carrying, or rather, WHO he was carrying.

A young man who looked to be in his mid-teens was being supported by Richard and Jessie, who had each of his arms around their shoulder. His long hair was red as blood, and his half-opened eyes were golden. He was dressed in what seemed to be a priest's garment of sorts, a simple, plain shirt, loose pants, and a robe on top with intricating golden patterns and symbols all over it. All of his clothing was completely black. They were quite tattered too, with rips and tears all over it. It was something of a wonder that it was still holding together, since it looked like it would fall apart at the slightest movement. The boy himself seemed to be in a pretty bad shape, his face completely pale and blood steadily collecting where he stood.

"Jessie, quick, bring some bandages to the guest room!" Richard instructed as he took the severely injured boy to the one room in the entire house that hasn't been used in over 5 years.

"Maria darling, I want you to stay put while we take care of this young man's injuries, okay?"

The little girl nodded as her mother quickly ran off to get some medical equipments.

As she was about to go back to her room, Maria noticed something glinting on the floor. It appeared to be a gold locket, with a very plain, oval design. There was, however, one glaring detail. There was a peculiar circle with a slash through its center embedded into the cover, along with one small word.

"Zero".

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Well, that's the prologue. This is actually an attempt at redoing the whole star ocean fic I started almost a year ago, then gave up due to lack of ideas. Anyway, if you've read my first fic "The Black Lance", please be kind enough to suggest whether I stick with the "Shuyin fic" or proceed with this new "Zero fic". I'll upload the next chapter for further comparisons. Remember to R&R! Thank you!