Human Error
A Phantasy Star fanfiction
----------------------------------------------------------------
By Scott W Gage

All Phantasy Star characters, creatures and worlds copyright SEGA Enterprises, ltd.

This fanfiction has been downloaded from "The World of WhiteShadow" (http://takeoff.to/WS800) and should only be found there. The author allows this fanfiction to be posted elsewhere,
provided that permission is requested first, at whiteshadow@witty.com Currently this fanfiction is only hosted at the World of WhiteShadow. Please report any misuse of this fanfiction to
the e-mail adress provided. Other than that, enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Garret awoke in a cold sweat. His flabby skin shone in the early morning sunlight filtering through the gap in the curtains. Beside him, his wife Lee awoke, her red hair cascading down onto the pillow as she raised herself onto her elbow; to look worriedly at her husband. "What's wrong, honey?" Her weary voice queried. "Was it the dream again?"
Garret's head snapped round on its thick neck, his black eyes glaring down at his wife. "What does it matter? It's just a stupid dream! Why don't you leave me alone about it? Argh! I've got chores to do!" He whipped off the covers in one fast movement, getting to his feet and slamming across the room to the shower. Lee lay back, staring at the ceiling and sighing in exasperation. Garret's mood swings were starting to worry her. Raising her voice above the sound of the shower, she cried out; "What chores?"

As Garret soaped himself down, Lee yelled something he couldn't hear from the bedroom. Stupid bitch, his mind snapped. Moments later, he regretted the thought. What was happening to him? Living under the Mother Brain was a simple and easy life, and as far as he was concerned his only "chores" were to put the dishes in the dishwasher and have breakfast. But as the frequency of the dreams increased, the more he began to loathe his wife, his kids, his very life. The rages that boiled up inside him were only offset by the fear he felt at himself when they awoke. It was the same fear he felt whenever he had the dream. 
The dream itself was disturbing enough. In the bright, sun-filled plains of his youth he would play like a child, without the weight of his responsibilities, without the weight of the extra pounds he had put on once Mother Brain began taking care of all the hard work. But then, a cloud comes over the sun... The grass around him slowly turns a deep black, as if there is a spreading ink stain on the world... He freezes, constant waves of negative emotions washing through him. Fear, agression, lust, rage, hatred, racism, all pass through his being. But the fear, the fear remains constant. 
Suddenly, the black stain reaches him, and before long, all there is is the darkness, the darkness... And the fear.
That's when he wakes up. And everytime it happens, he wakes up even more aggressive and ignorant then before. 
Stepping out of the shower, Garret felt the fear washing over him again. This time, the fear was caused by his wife, standing in the doorway. She looked mad. A part of Garret's mind assured him quietly that that was good. 
"I've had enough of this, Garret. The fighting, the yelling, the screaming at the kids; it's got to stop. Where's the man I married? The man I love?" Garret stood stock still for a moment, wearing naught but a towel around his waist. The fear rose even higher in him, but not at the thought of losing his wife and family, but at what his wife might do. He felt totally defenceless in front of her, like he was missing a vital piece of himself. And that scared him to death.
He had never hit Lee before, never in their five years of marriage. But as she frightened him, cowed him, he lashed out, all his pent-up rage and hatred unleashed in one single blow. As she fell to the floor, a welt on her cheek bleeding profusely, she stopped moving altogether, and Garret rushed out of the house. The towel fell from him, but the fear didn't; he ran naked through the streets, always holding back a scream. Not at what he had done, but what Lee might do to him should she wake up; what society might do to him if they found out what he had done.
When he reached the outskirts of town, he fell to his knees and allowed his fear to come out in one terrible shriek.

Rumour had it that the trouble in Mota all started when the people heard the scream. It awoke Rolf* from his nightmares. It caused the Commander of Mota to shake in his boots. It left Nei with earache for days afterwards due to her more sensitive hearing. What the people didn't know, however, was the result of that scream.

His hands in the grass, his breath coming in deep heaving gasps, Garret lay face down on the ground, the fear departing for now. But he knew it would return. He tried to cast his mind back to what caused him to scream like that, to what brought him here, but the fear of memory overwhelmed him every time he tried. He wearily got to his feet, but was surprised to find that it was easier then before. It was if he had lost weight recently, but he couldn't remember being anything other than his own, slim self. Brushing down his dark armour (which hadn't been there moments before, but Garret wasn't to know) he headed north, over the bridge, and began wandering in a vaguely north eastern direction. If he tried to turn any other way, the fear would well up inside him, bringing him to his knees, shivering. If he just continued north east, he surmised, if he did what the fear wanted, it would leave him alone. And that's all Garret wanted. 
In his blank, empty mind, that was all Garret had ever wanted.

Garret, it seemed, had been frightened all his life. His abusive father was the start of it all. Back when he was just a skinny little boy, his father had beaten him until Garret knew nothing but the fear of his father, and the fear of what he would do to Garret if he didn't do exactly as he said. Garret's father beat his mother as well, but Garret had no time to worry about her; he had to watch everything he did so as to not infuriate his father.
This fear, of failing people, and of getting hurt, carried over to his attempt to get into the Agent's Academy. The Agents were the elite of the Palman people, basically serving as what we would call a police force. Garret's fears, however, had made him a coward. He flinched any time someone aimed a practice blow at him in training. He developed a fear of heights when the Agents had to get basic training in mountain climbing. And finally, his fear of any authority figure, which reminded him of his own father, eventually got him drummed out of the Academy. That's when he got his first taste of hate.
Garret was too self-absorbed in his own pity for himself that he couldn't see that it was his own faults that got him kicked out of the Academy. Instead, he imagined a conspiracy against him, but the constant thoughts of that at night eventually made him forget the idea as it frightened him too much.
The stories of biomonsters inhabitating the wilds of Mota scared him even more, and so he settled down in his home town and became a blacksmith. With the advent of Mother Brain, however, he became redundant; but found that everything was provided for him. 
He met Lee a year later. She was an agent, fresh from the Academy, but his sudden love for her overwhelmed any paranoid delusions he had kept about the Academy. So, they fell in love, got married, had children and five years later he killed her.

All this information had fled Garret's memory, however. He wasn't even sure of his own name anymore. All he knew, for now, was the pain.
He had trudged for a day or so when they attacked. Knowing nothing but rumours about the biomonsters of Mota, Garret could only assume he was being attacked by giant insects. Rather then being afraid of them, however, he felt something else rrise up in him. They were in his way. The fear would be back if he didn't keep moving, and these creatures wanted to stop him... And that only made Garret angry. He let the rage run though him, filling him with a strange power as he faced his adversaries. Feeling the rage flowing, he lifted his hands towards his targets and let his rage fly out. 
So it was thus, that on the day after Rolf set out on his quest to stop the biomonsters in Mota, the first Black Wave was cast by the first incarnation of Zio, the black magician. The only problem was, no-one truly knew who this evil force was yet... None, but it's creator... Truly, the Dark Force chose his minions well.

Garret, or the man that used to be known as Garret, lay face down in the grass, the smoking remains of three Bees laying in front of him. Exhausted from the first time magical effort, Garret slept for what seemed like days. When he awoke, his body ached still, and he found that he would be in danger if he slept out here in the open. Moving to the nearby sanctuary of an agricultural dome, Garret fell to the ground once more. Again, he didn't know how long he slept for, but this time, instead of coming naturally awake, he was woken by a piercing screech in his head. As he got to his feet, grabbing his head in pain, the screech lessened until it became an audible voice, seeming to come from nowhere and yet everywhere at once.
"The trail! Get to the trail!" Although the volume had lowered, the voice was clearly screaming at the top of its lung, shrieking, it seemed, with rage. Shivering with fear, he turned from his hidey-hole to see a pair coming up the trail. They seemed like a normal couple, although they were bedecked in battle gear. The blue-haired male carried a knife, while the woman, whose ears seemed strangely out of shape weilded a pair of steel bars. Unarmed and exhausted as he was, Garret feared them almost as much as he feared the voice in his head.
Wracked with indecision, he let the pair pass him by. Suddenly, the voice screamed even louder at him and he passed out from the pain. 

Garret slowly came to hours later, surprised to find himself lying naked in the grass. He also sensed the slightest buzzing in his head. The buzzing quickly rose in intensity, until the voice from before filled his head again. It was a deep, booming voice, and its tone was calm and threatening now. "You see? What I have given you, I can take away, Zio." 
Garret looked around fearfully, before muttering. "Where are you, and who are you talking to? My name is... I'm not sure what my name is..."
"Your name is Zio, and you are my... Pet. You shall revere me, and if you serve me well, I shall reward you..." Suddenly, Garret/Zio's black armour returned, covering his body like a second skin. It felt so right after the coldness of nudity, that Garret hugged the armour to him without hesitation. "But fail me, as you just have, Zio, and..." Suddenly, the voice was lost as it rose to a screech, driving Zio down to his knees in pain. "You see, Zio, who you are dealing with? I am your master now, and you are my pet magician - you hear me?" The voice boomed in his head.
"But, but who are you?" Zio gasped, his now long black hair falling over his face as he doubled over in pain.
"That is none of your concern." Said the voice, before Zio blacked out again.

Urgh, I'm getting tired of this, thought Zio as he awoke from the darkness once more. The cold sweat of fear covered him, and he even began to shake as he recognised the mild buzzing that meant that whatever it was that spoke to him was present. In his head. The fear of what the voice could do to him chilled Zio to the bone. Putting a hand to his aching head, he spoke aloud; "What do you wish of me, master?"
The voice was barely a contented murmur as it spoke; "Ahhh, that's better.
"I want you, Zio, to travel to the Biosystems lab; I will guide you there. Those two that you failed to stop earlier are on their way there to ruin my plans, and you know what that means?" 
Zio almost didn't respond. As the buzzing grew in intensity, he quickly replied. "It means I have to stop them at all costs, Master!" The buzzing reduced to its ordinary level, but not before Zio could mutter; "But you didn't tell me to stop them, before."
The pain returned in an instant, felling Zio. Gasping as the screeching refused to let up, Zio tried to struggle to his feet, but failed every time. Suddenly, through the screeching, the voice returned. "HOW DARE YOU QUESTION ME! YOU ARE NOTHING, AND I AM EVERYTHING! I am the darkness, the light, the pain, the fear, the death - I am Dark Falz, and I am your ruler!"
Already on his knees, Zio assumed a begging position. "Yes, master, no master, whatever you say, master."
The buzzing receded, but the cold fear gripping Zio's heart did not lessen one iota. Rising shakily to his feet, Zio once again struck out in a north-easterly direction, his swimming head making his walk a slow, and stuttered one. 

His speed did not improve over his travels, and the constant threat of biomonsters attacking slowed him even further, so by the time he reached his goal of the Biosystems lab, Zio's dark master was berating him constantly, causing Zio to become more and more cowed by his "ruler". As he came into sight of the tall building, he could not recall ever being so frightened, so depressed in all his life. Considering that his memory stretched back only days, that was no surprise. 
Entering the labyrinthine complex, Zio knew almost immeadiately that he was too late. Expecting to see some trace of his quarry, all the Black Magician found was row after row of glass capsules, housing biomonsters of all shapes and sizes. As he walked amongst them, a strange electrical hum was the only sound that he registered besides the ringing of his own boots on the steel floor. Zio was suddenly startled by a bubbling noise erupting suddenly from one of the canisters. He realised that while some of these creatures were still in a larval stage, some of them were fully grown, just waiting to be released. Not wanting to wake the sleeping monsters, Zio trod carefully.
Although Zio's memory of his life at Garret had been erased, his morals and emotions hadn't. These were necessary to Dark Force to instil fear and respect in his "pet". However, seeing row after row of manufactured monstrosities, some of which had already been released from their capsules, and lay dead on the floor, filled Zio with revulsion. He couldn't imagine how or why anyone would release these creatures upon the world; although none of the creatures had been released to attack Zio, the biomonsters he had encountered on the way filled him with fear for their slumbering brethren. 
As Zio walked, the electrical hum became louder, until it drowned out even the echo of his footsteps. Rounding a corner, Zio came face to face with the Biosystems Lab's mainframe. A bank of monitors shone down at him, some showing surveillance pictures from around the lab, others showing technical readouts which were moving too fast for Zio to read, much less understand. Exhauseted from his travels, Zio slumped down in a control chair in front of the monitors, resting his arms on the keyboards on the arms of the chair. Suddenly, the centre screen blacked out for a moment, as the speakers around the mainframe suddenly crackled into life. Sparks flying from the speakers told Zio that they wouldn't be able to output the sound they were attempting to, as the sound of static filled his ears. Considering that some of the monitors were also smashed, he reasoned that perhaps a biomonster had been let loose and had done this damage. 
His attention turned back to the the centre screen as an image appeared on it. 5 men, dressed in white coats, faced a capsule much like the ones Zio had seen, however this one contained what looked to Zio like a Palman female; floating in the capsules liquid, her nudity was only concealed by the heads of the men in front of her, who seemed to be constantly marking things down in various notebooks. Zio didn't care about these side matters though, as he stared silently at the Palman's face... Never had he seen such beauty. 
Just as the first smile Zio could remember began to creep across his face, the scene changed. This time, the woman was laying flat on a table, her purple hair sprayed out around her, framing her face perfectly; at least to Zio's eyes. Slowly, the camera panned down, to show the woman covered by a white sheet. As it moved further down, Zio saw bright red stains spread across the sheet, the men in white coats reappearing from the darkness around the table, their clothes stained red also. Just as a large drill type machine descended from off camera, Zio's ears were filled with the buzzing that indicated Dark Force's displeasure.
The world went black as the pain in Zio's head increased; suddenly, his armour began to tighten around him, cutting off his air supply. He slumped to the floor, writhing in pain. The buzzing receded, but the constricting of his armour did not as Dark Force's voice filled his mind. "How DARE YOU! YOU HAVE FAILED ME AGAIN, ZIO!" Zio tried to scream, to apologise, but no words would come. Suddenly, Dark Force's voice dropped to a soothing tone. "And what do I find you doing? Watching television? YOU WORM! NEVER FORGET THAT YOU ARE MINE NOW!" As Dark Force's voice dropped away, a trickle of blood creeped from the corner of Zio's mouth, dripping on to the floor slowly. 
Although Zio couldn't hear it for the ringing in his ears, the speakers suddenly crackled into life, although the video had long since stopped playing. 
"...Although the prototype grew to full maturity within a year, the rigors of constant testing means that she often has to return to her capsule to heal. Despite this, we are quite pleased with the results and are willing to proceed with the first of our "humans who are not human"...."
As Zio blacked out, he thought he saw the men in white coats appear around him, but he couldn't be sure...