Xenoblade – Narrow escape

An alternate Xenoblade storyline. Events diverge from the original plot at the end of the colony 9 assault, during the closing stages of the battle with Metal Face.

I recomend completing, or at least getting to a seven character party in Xenoblade before reading this as there are some indirect spoilers, and certain key events and revelations occur earlier than they do in the game.

"" = spoken, ("") = thoughts, Italics = whispered/subliminal, Bold = Loud/Overwhelming

Chapter 1

The damned vision flashes before Shulk's eyes yet again. The worst part now is that he knows exactly what it means. It's always filled him with a sense of foreboding, but since realising that crashed mobile artillery was part of it he's realised he has had no time to make any plans. The only thing he's been able to do is load the thing with the prototype ether shells he'd swiped from the weapons lab and hope for the best. The three of them are close to broken, and much as Fiora has taken the heat off them momentarily they know they'll have to get back to their feet before they can help her. The artillery has already been damaged, but something new happens…the vision fades. Fiora fires the main cannon into Metal Face at point blank range, and it crashes to the ground, its head now ablaze. It seems faced mechon are not completely resistant to ether. The vision is now less vivid, but still there. The artillery locks up, the damage it's sustained taking its toll. Metal Face slowly rises back to its feet, but it looks off balance, possibly dazed by the impact. It closes in and grabs the artillery, its burning face glaring directly into Fiora's eyes. She's in no position to fight back anymore, but she's bought a little more time for the others to recover. Shulk shouts to draw its attention.

"You aren't finished with me yet…you're here for the Monado…so come and get it!"

Metal face lifts the mobile artillery with Fiora still in it, evidently planning on throwing it at Shulk. It's lost track of Reyn though, who strikes the back of its knee, knocking it off balance. Dunban follows this up, managing to pierce its eye, the armour on its face weakened by the ether shell. It tries to crush Dunban under the artillery, but Reyn manages to knock him clear. The impact is tremendous though, Reyn and Dunban are thrown into a nearby wall and Fiora cries out as it smashes into the ground. Shulk charges metal face head on, utterly enraged at what's happened. He's dimly aware that Reyn is still moving, but Dunban is still, and he can't see Fiora at all. Metal face is overbalanced from its attack, and Shulk hacks into its face as rapidly as he can, leaving a large number of gashes in the weakened armour. Metal face recoils and then flees, leaving Shulk to pick up the pieces.

"Shulk…I think I'm okay…Dunban's alive, but out cold though, and Fiora…oh no…oh please no."

Shulk spots Fiora. She's been thrown clear of the wreckage, but she's lying very still. A small pool of blood is forming under her.

"Fiora…no…this can't be happening…not after everything!"

Shulk rushes to her. Blood is running from her mouth, the sight of this causes Shulk to gasp.

"Shulk…please…tell me she's okay."

Shulk checks her pulse and finds her heart is still beating. He can't see any obvious serious injuries on her body, but he can see patches of blood all over her as he searches.

"She's alive, but she's bleeding…I can't find the injury…we need help here!"

Shulk's mind goes blank in panic. He tries to check her pulse again and finds nothing.

"Reyn!...Her heart's stopped!...What do I do!...Help me!"

Fiora suddenly coughs, spitting blood and a broken tooth out.

"Fiora!"

Shulk hugs her and bursts into tears.

"Owwww…knocked out one my back teeth...least it won't show…"

"You're alive!"

"Owowowowow!…Don't hug so hard Shulk…"

"Sorry…sniff."

Reyn manages to get back to his feet.

"Looks like I can stand…you're alive…I thought we'd lost you."

"Shulk, Reyn…you're okay…No! Dunban!"

Fiora tries to get up and run over to him but falls due to her injuries. Luckily Shulk catches her.

"Don't worry, he's alive…we took a bit a tumble when metal face tried to squash us"

"Reyn…do you think you can carry him?"

"Yeah…you take Fiora, we'll get them back to Dunban's…he's got some first aid there"

Fiora's in pretty bad shape from her ordeal. Her lost tooth has made her mouth bleed quite a lot, giving the illusion of an internal injury, but fortunately this doesn't appear to be the case. She's covered in bruising and has enough concussion to stop her walking, but she's far more concerned about Dunban though…even after sword valley he managed to stay conscious.

They reach Dunban's house. By this time he's regaining some degree of consciousness and is muttering semi coherently. As they lie him down he seems to come back into focus a little.

"…Fiora…"

"Don't worry, she's alive. Shulk managed to drive that monster off."

"Thank you…and Reyn…nice save back there."

"Don't mention it, that's what friends are for!"

"How you feeling?"

"Not good, but I've had worse…I'll be fine."

Fiora notices Dunban has regained consciousness and calls out to him.

"Dunban! I thought we'd lost you back there…"

"I honestly thought that was the end of you back there Fiora…"

With a little help from Shulk Fiora makes her way over to Dunban and hugs him. She starts sobbing, and much to the surprise of Reyn and Shulk so does Dunban, doing his best to hug her with his good arm.

"…Things got pretty intense out there. You okay Reyn?"

"Just a bit of bruising, guess I got lucky. I think poor Dunban might've cushioned me from the impact. You okay Shulk?"

"Don't seem to be injured. I feel pretty sick though."

"That'll be the adrenaline. That's the first time I've seen you get the red mist, quite a spectacle too…you do realise your hands are bleeding?"

"I thought that was Fiora's blood. How'd I manage that?"

"There's blood on the Monado, it'll be from where you were gripping it. Once you've got them covered up we need to make sure those two get some proper treatment. They took a lot more punishment than we did."

Shulk cleans his hands up and then he and Reyn do their best to give Fiora and Dunban some medical attention. Dunban is in a pretty bad state; the stress put on his body by the ordeal has aggravated many of his old injuries on top of the fresh ones he's sustained. Fortunately he appears to be stable. Closer inspection of Fiora reveals that she doesn't appear to have any broken bones, and her bleeding actually wasn't as bad as it appeared to be; Shulk hadn't realised his hands were bleeding so some of it is actually his. While in considerable discomfort, she also appears to be stable.

"Okay, that's probably the best we can do right now."

"Do you think it might be worth trying to get some of the medical officers down here? We're no doctors…"

"I don't think we'd get anywhere, things got very nasty outside the fortress so they'll have their hands full."

"Shulk…how'd you actually manage to drive that thing off?"

"I'm not sure Fiora, that bits kind of hazy. After I saw you get slammed I pretty much lost it"

"I saw what happened Shulk. You went berserk, charged that mechon head on and then pretty much took its face off"

"…Good. I thought that thing had just murdered Fiora and Dunban. Shame I didn't destroy it"

"Shulk…you're shaking."

"I thought I'd lost you back there…that feeling of rage and despair, it's still lingering…I'm just so glad you're okay now…sorry, you don't mind if go out for some air?...I still feel pretty sick."

Shulk goes outside.

"Reyn, are you sure he's okay? He's supposed to be an engineer, not a front line assault trooper."

"I've seen some of the lads get pretty fired up for combat before…but that was something else. He was putting so much force behind his attacks he tore his hands open, and he didn't even notice."

"Give him some time and he'll go back to normal. We all survived, and I think we'll all make a full recovery. Once that sinks in he'll be fine…"

The sound of Shulk being sick somewhere outside can be heard

"…He'll feel better for that. Reminds me of the time a certain green soldier couldn't believe he'd emerged alive and victorious from his first skirmish with the mechon many years ago."

"Don't put it like that…you're not that old"

Shulk comes back in.

"Sorry about that…"

"Could I ask a favour of you two? I'm not going to be much use if Fiora needs anything so could you stay the night?"

"Likewise, if Dunban needs anything…"

"No problems, but we're both pretty bad cooks so I hope you don't mind take away curry for breakfast…the last thing you want on top of everything else is food poisoning."

Shulk and Reyn spend the night. By the next morning Fiora is able to walk again, but still dizzy, and Dunban seems to be faring better. He too is walking but clearly in quite a bit of pain. Reyn has been out to examine the damage from yesterday's events.

"The colony got hit pretty hard…a lot of good people died yesterday. The air defences are down to one battery and pretty much all the vehicles got wrecked…Vangarre got a bloody air transport dropped on him, and somehow he's still alive. Gonna be a while before he's back in action mind. There is some good news though! The clean up's underway and the colony's pretty much functioning again already…and thanks to our exploits yesterday there's no shortage of mechon scrap kicking around."

"That'll make Dickson's plans run a little more smoothly then. He mentioned something about needing mechon materials for his latest weapons project."

"Oh, and Giorgio's place got away unscathed so I got us all a curry."

"Nice one, I've got my appetite my back now."

The four of them have some breakfast.

"That's some good curry…nice to taste something other than blood."

"You okay Fiora?"

"I'll be fine…aside from the tooth I don't think there's any lasting damage and nothing that'll show. You okay Dunban?"

"I think so. Just feels like a really bad hangover now"

"You two better get plenty of rest. I know you both got a habit of saying you're fine regardless."

"Speak for yourself Shulk, are you sure you're okay?"

"Come on, I got off the lightest of all of us, of course I'm alright."

"…."

"What's that face for Reyn?"

"Your hands are bleeding again."

"Damn…I'll get them cleaned up."

"Sorry for pushing the issue a little here, but how the hell did you not notice?"

"They sting a bit now, but…how could I have not realised?"

"I think I know. We'll have a little chat later Shulk, and put some gloves on, it'll give you some protection."

"…Okay, I'll be a few minutes, I've got some at the lab."

Shulk heads out to get his gloves.

"So…what's going on here?"

"I noticed he reopened the injuries to his hands when we brought up the issue of you two being hurt. My guess is he's still utterly furious deep down that Metal Face nearly killed both of you. I've never seen him properly angry before, and it looks like when his temper does go, it really goes. I don't think he'll calm down until the root of the problem's been dealt with, so I reckon we're gonna be going mechon hunting sometime soon, and to be honest after what happened yesterday I'm looking forward to it."

"You're going to wait until I'm recovered first though. I'm not about to let you two go off an get yourselves killed…and I want a piece of Metal Face too, I nearly watched it kill the three of you."

"I'm not too sure Shulk would be too happy considering what happened…"

"…what happened Reyn, is that Fiora saved our bacon when Metal Face was about to eviscerate us. Shulk might have driven it off afterwards but if she hadn't charged in we wouldn't be here now."

"Sorry…you did save us back there Fiora. I don't think he'll need too much convincing once he realises that."

Shulk gets back with hands now covered.

"Okay, that's sorted. So what do you think's going on?"

"I noticed you clench your fists when you get angry, and that's what's reopening those wounds."

"…I see. I've never really felt like this before so I'm not sure what to do."

"I'll tell you what we'll do. As soon as I'm recovered enough we head out and find some kind of productive outlet for that anger. I've got a feeling we weren't the only colony that got hit, so I suggest we head for colony 6."

"Are you sure about this? Things didn't exactly go well yesterday…we all survived, but only just."

"Something tells me one way or another we're gonna run into Metal Face again. We've got a better idea of what to expect next time. I reckon we're gonna have to deal with lot more mechon now as well, I think that attack was probably the beginning of their latest move."

"I'd hoped Sword Valley would have seen them off for a bit longer, but you're probably right Reyn."

"Okay then, but I'm still concerned about Metal Face. Up until Fiora blasted it nothing we did seemed to work, even the Monado."

"Another good reason why we need to head out. I think you've probably made all the progress you can with the monado in that lab. Chances are the answers we need lie outside the colony now. Isn't it supposed to be about as old as the Bionis itself? Maybe some archaeological sites will contain some clues."

"I can't really argue with that. In truth yesterday I made more progress with the Monado research than throughout the entire past year. I'll check Dickson's notes again regarding historical details on the monado, see if I can get any indications of good places to look."

"Looks like we've got something resembling a plan now. I think I'll be fit to travel in a few days, I'm still pretty dizzy but the curry settled nicely. How about you Dunban?"

"I think I'll need a little longer than you unfortunately. I wasn't as ready for battle yesterday as I'd led myself to believe and nearly paid for it dearly, all three of you ended up having to save me. I've got a few other preparations that need to be made as well, but as soon as I'm ready I'll catch you up."

Fiora, Reyn and Shulk spend the next few days preparing for the journey ahead. Much to Fiora's relief Dunban recovers somewhat faster than expected. Once the three of them are ready they say goodbye to Dunban.

"Best of luck, I won't be far behind you. Oh, and don't forget to take the Monado."

"Thanks Dunban, and before I go…"

Fiora gives Dunban a big hug, and much to his surprise lifts him off the floor.

"…You don't need to worry about me; I'm pretty strong now you know. You're getting awfully light mind, be careful you don't overdo it."

"Don't worry, as soon as you're gone Dickson's coming round, and we've got a solid diet of kebabs and beer planned. I'll put the weight back on in no time."

"Hehehehe! See you soon!"

As the three of them leave they spot Dickson carrying what looks suspiciously like a crate of booze and a take away box.

"I thought he was joking…"

The three of them make their way to Tephra cave, and discover the dead trade party shortly after.

"Doesn't look like mechon did this from the injuries...Nasty way to go as well"

"We'd better return them to the Bionis…they need to be at peace now."

The three of them return the bodies.

"I hope we don't have to that again anytime soon."

"They were an armed trade party. Whatever did that to them is something we really want to avoid."

"I know Tephra cave isn't exactly supposed to be safe, but I've never heard of anything quite that dangerous lurking in here."

"We'd better get some rest then. We want to be fresh and alert if we run into trouble."

"Who's going on first watch?"

"My turn I think."

"Thanks Reyn."

Fiora and Shulk get some sleep while Reyn keeps watch. As his watch comes to an end he notices the Monado activate on its own. While he sleeps Shulk has a vision of Fiora and Reyn being killed by the arachno queen.

"Arrrghh!"

Shulk goes from fast asleep to charging with the Monado drawn before Reyn can react. He slices a rocky outcrop apart before realising what's happening."

"Calm down! Nightmare, Shulk, you were having a nightmare."

Shulk struggles not to throw up. He only just succeeds. He's very pale, sweating and shaking.

"You look terrible…what on Bionis happened?"

"That was horrible…it was here, I'd got separated from you two, and when I found you again…that thing must've been an arachno queen…I've only ever seen them in textbooks…"

Fiora runs over to him and hugs him, moving them both towards Reyn.

"It's okay, we're here, and we're all fine…"

"…It was…eating Reyn…and Fiora…your head…"

"You can stop there or I'll be picking up where you left off with that nightmare. Bloody spiders of all things…"

"I've never had a nightmare that vivid…it seemed real…"

"Don't worry; there's been no report of an arachno queen in tephra cave for years. Besides, we'd have seen arachno pods if there was one."

Suddenly Reyn goes pale and points open mouthed across the chamber.

"Reyn…what's the matter, don't joke around here…"

The two of them glance to where he's pointing. There's an arachno pod there. Noticing Reyn's look of terror and Shulk's highly agitated state Fiora manages to keep her cool and responds in a deadpan tone.

"…let's get out of here…right now."

"Reyn…was the monado active when I was sleeping?"

"I don't see how…"

"Was it bloody active!?"

"Y-yes it was."

"What's the quickest way out?"

"We head on towards Bionis knee."

"Okay then…we stay close together…do not lose sight of each other, we absolutely must not get separated."

"Why'd you ask about the monado?"

"That nightmare…it was a vision, a warning. The monado gave me them before when we were fighting the mechon, and earlier, it showed me…arrrgh!"

Shulk accidently makes contact with a stray webbing strand and is pulled into the chamber above.

"Shulk! We'll find you, keep talking!"

"How many!? This place is infested!"

Shulk runs along and eventually reaches the ledge above the lake.

"There he is! Shulk, were coming, hang in there!"

"Don't these things ever give up!? Leave me alone, I'm not a menu option!"

Shulk outruns the spiders but not looking where he's going runs straight off the ledge and into the arachno queen's chamber. He lands in some webbing and gets stuck.

"Don't panic Shulk…noise or movement will attract them..."

Fiora and Reyn get to the chamber.

"There he is! Reyn, I'll cut him free, you watch our backs."

Fiora and Reyn jump down and Fiora runs across and starts to cut Shulk free from the webbing.

"We're with you Shulk, we'll be fine so don't…"

"No! It's going to kill Reyn!"

"What you talking about, there's nothing…"

Fiora sees the look of terror in Shulk's eyes and decides to trust him, he's freed enough to finish the job of getting out of the web himself. Fiora starts to run towards Reyn, and as she does she spots the previously hidden arachno queen moving into position to strike.

"Reyn! Look out!"

Reyn doesn't react in time but Fiora reaches him and tackles him just before the strike can connect, knocking him clear. Shulk desperately hacks away the remaining web as the arachno queen moves into position for a second attempt.

"Fiora, get behind me!"

Reyn does his best to shield her from the incoming strike, but it's obvious to Shulk that something that size and strength would tear through a gunlance like paper. He charges towards them with the monado drawn in desperation.

"No! that's not gonna be the future! I'm not gonna let you!"

A new symbol appears on the Monado, and at the last second Shulk manages to summon a shield. Reyn successfully blocks the strike.

"Reyn, Fiora, you're alive!"

"Don't be celebrating just yet…"

The arachno queen tries to strike Shulk but Reyn blocks it again.

"…and don't let your guard down either. We've got some bug stomping to do."

"Nice save Reyn…come on, let's clean out this infestation."

Fiora starts to deal with the swarm, but Shulk immediately charges the arachno queen head on. Through his visions he manages to sustain a relentless offensive, and he starts to push the creature back. Reyn assists Fiora in finishing off the swarm, and it isn't long before they can assist Shulk. They both notice he's picked up some minor cuts in fight but he doesn't even seem to have noticed them; in fact he seems to be almost completely focused on trying to kill the arachno queen. This does draw the creature's attention completely and allows Fiora to flank it. Reyn supports Shulk up front and after landing a particularly forceful blow one of its mandibles is torn off. The creature rears up in response, and Fiora takes this as her cue to dash under it, slicing into the soft underbelly as she does. It stats to bleed extremely heavily from the wound; having had some vital structure damaged. As it staggers away mortally wounded Shulk charges and slices into it with all the force he can muster. The Monado cuts into it but Shulk keeps pushing forwards, resulting in the huge creature being sliced in half.

"Whoa…I think it's dead now."

"You okay Shulk?"

Shulk's tightly gripping the Monado and shaking. There's some of his blood dripping from the hilt. He regains his composure and deactivates the Monado. He then simply walks over to the two of them and hugs them.

"That nightmare was a vision of the future. I had one just like it back at colony 9…I saw Metal Face kill Fiora…"

"Now I understand all that screaming you did…but we all made it. It wasn't the future."

"It is if we don't try to change it. Back at colony 9 I wasn't sure, but the vision was so disturbing I had to do something. The only truly identifiable thing in it was the mobile artillery, so I stole those prototype ether rounds from the armoury and loaded them at the first chance I got…lucky guess that paid off."

"That explains why it had incendiaries. Thinking about it now it was on a training exercise, it shouldn't have had any special equipment at all."

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything to you sooner, my heads not exactly been clear since the attack…and Fiora, thank you for trusting me even when you had nothing to go on…that's what changed the future."

"You did give us a little warning, but we'll have an easier time if you tell us when you have one of these visions. The sooner we know and the more we know the better we can prepare, and it's gonna be a lot easier to change the future if all of us act together."

"Sorry…If anything like it happens again I'll tell you straight away."

"Oh, and you're giving me a little too much credit…I don't recall anyone ever being able to create a shield with the Monado before."

"Come on; let's get out of here, who knows when those bloody spiders are gonna be back."

The three of them exit the cave onto Bionis knee. The sight of Mechonis greets them.

"Oh wow. We're gonna have to take a break here, that view is something else."

"Mechonis itself. It's pretty astonishing when you think that it actually used move."

"Same goes for the Bionis, and I guess that explains why as far as we know pretty much all the Homs colonies left were only built after the great clash."

"Well, there are bits and pieces that suggest something was around the site of colony 9 before. I seem to remember Shura mentioning there might be some evidence in the blocked off parts of Tephra cave…that said there's no way in hell I'm going back in there for a while."

"Yeah, right now I just want some fresh air…and this certainly isn't. What's that smell?"

"Ah, um…sorry about that, I think it might be us…well…mostly me."

"Shulk, I know it was a bit scary back there but…I promise we won't tell anyone else…"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. I got splattered with arachno insides when I finished the queen off, and then I managed to slime both of you during that hug afterwards."

"Funny what you don't notice when you've just had an intense experience. Looks like you got me a little, but it's just my top so I think I'll just need a change of clothes, how about you Reyn?"

"Yeah, I'm not too bad either, a quick change'll sort me out; how about you Shulk?"

"I might as well have taken a bath in the stuff, it's even soaked into my underwear…I'm not going to get away with half measures, I need a full change of clothes now and as soon as we get onto the Guar Plains I'll have to find somewhere to get a half decent wash."

"Still, we'd better take a break here; Reyn didn't get any rest in the cave."

"Fair point, given what we just went through we're getting more than our fair share of surprises so being rested up will have to take priority. I just hope you two can cope with the stench."

"You ever been in the locker rooms after a training session on a hot day? I've coped with worse Shulk, trust me on this."

"I've been looking forward to a spot of adventure for some time now, and something like this goes with the territory. You should've seen some of the states Dunban came back in after his recon missions; days' worth of dried sweat and I can't see how he couldn't have realised he'd crawled through…"

"We don't need that much detail Fiora. We might as well get changed; there're some bushes over there that ought to give us a bit of privacy."

Fiora and Reyn get into some fresh clothes, but when it comes to Shulk's turn…

"Aw man, they're sticking to me!"

"Look on the bright side, if you did have an accident nobody would be any the wiser!"

Shulk eventually manages to peel off his decidedly vile clothes and get into something clean. The three of them set up camp.

"You two don't mind if I get a little shut eye?"

"No problems."

Reyn starts to snore a little after a short time.

"So that's the legendary snoring? I got the impression it was supposed to sound like a rusty chainsaw, that's barely louder than crickets."

"You know how people tend to exaggerate things, plus the barracks bunkhouse creates something of echo from what I've heard."

"So then, how are you really holding up Shulk."

"I think I'll be okay…well, I'm not sure I'm cut out for this. You and Reyn are both really good in a tight spot, but I have to rely on pulling some fancy trick with the Monado to make the difference, and I'm worried I might not be able to do it next time."

"Are you having second thoughts?"

"I'd be selfish of me to ask us to turn back. Fiora…I'm sorry about having my head stuck up my backside this past year. After sword valley I got obsessed with trying to crack the Monado and kind of withdrew from life a bit…and the whole time even with your commitment to looking after Dunban you still went out of your way to be nice to me."

Fiora sits down behind Shulk.

"I knew why you did that Shulk…you just wanted to protect us by figuring out the Monado; and I know you wanted make sure Dunban didn't get hurt again trying to protect us."

"Even so…I should have tried to be more supportive to you. I kept telling myself it'd work out for everyone if I cracked the Monado, but deep down I had this horrible feeling the defence force weren't exactly being as supportive as they should've been."

"I suppose now's as good a time as any to talk about it, especially now we're away from the colony. After sword valley there were a lot of…how best to put it…issues to do with defence force politics. Due to his injuries its was generally expected that if Dunban was to return to defence force duty it would be in a non-combatant role, but since most of the senior officers are actually non-combatants themselves they saw this as a threat to their positions."

"Dunban had already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt he was a hero, and I guess with that under his belt he'd have been able to influence the defence force much more strongly in a commanding role."

"Well they didn't like that one bit…and they were willing to play dirty to keep their positions of power secure."

"Hang on a minute…that business with Vangarre…"

"I reckon they were leaning on him to get me to join. I know he'd been keen on me joining for a while, but after sword valley I got quite a lot of requests. Something I couldn't help but notice is he actually looked relived when I turned them down."

"I guess they wanted you in the defence force so they could use you to manipulate Dunban; and I suppose Vangarre didn't really approve of that kind of tactic."

"While nothing was ever confirmed I certainly wouldn't put it past them. It's no coincidence that colonel Leater retired as soon as Emmy started to rise up the ranks."

"I should've realised what was happening..."

"It's not your fault Shulk, and don't worry about it; we managed. They made a few empty threats but there was little they could actually do without risking the ire of the troops; in fact I think it might've backfired on them. Dunban only mentioned this to me just before we left but the general was forced to resign; nobody's completely sure why but it got out amongst the force that he was trying to pressure Dunban so I think that might have contributed. What's more it's pretty much a given that he's going to get promoted to fill the now vacant post."

Fiora wraps her arms around Shulk.

"You know you did succeed in the end…it's thanks to you that Dunban doesn't have to pick the Monado up anymore."

"I'm glad something good came out of that, and thanks for convincing me to go on this adventure with you."

"Still…you're certainly gonna need that wash when we get to the Guar plains, you really do stink."

While momentarily a little hurt by Fiora's comment, Shulk can't help but notice she hasn't loosened her hold on him.

Meanwhile somewhere on Bionis a discussion takes place

"He acted on the vision. He's sharper than we gave him credit. This might be a problem."

"Not as much as it could have been. He may already have figured out he can defy fate, but in his current state of mind he'll be more than sufficiently malleable for our purposes."

"An unexpected bonus…but I'm not convinced it'll be enough to counterbalance the complications arising from this deviation from fate…she's now an unexpected element in the equation. On top of this the motivating factors are different, and the central reason for him making the journey is gone. We can't guarantee the meeting as things stand."

"Mechon activity isn't getting any less intense. He'll have no shortage of reasons thanks to that. They may yet put our original plan back on track for us; we don't have a clear vision of the future at this stage, so there's nothing to say she'll survive their next encounter."

"Even so, leaving things to chance isn't the way we do things. There are still some cohesive elements in the vision even now. If we use those as a base we can structure a rough plan of action and slot the remaining pieces into place as things clear. You're being very optimistic regarding her as well. That last encounter…she was the one that defied fate there."

"Interesting…she didn't have any significant prompt, yet she still managed…so it would seem that she's actually leading them now. Perhaps we need to look at this differently. If we consider her as a fixed element in our projections and consider her as a dominant rather than secondary decider...we need to consider her reasons for making the journey. It appears that by her own impulses she'll eventually bring him to us."

"So what was once an obstacle has now become a driving force. I'm still not in favour of using her; based on most of our original projections she was the undoing of the scenarios…her removal was a necessity."

"But the original scenario is now void, and the current situation lies outside of anything our projections could foresee. Her survival could genuinely be in our interests now...ironically she has remained pivotal in him making the journey to us, just for completely different reasons."

If any of you have any preferences with regard to which story you want me to push ahead with feel free to PM me. Unless explicitly stated i'll be trying to continue all of my stories.