Quick Author notes:
Boy oh BOY has it been a long time since I've written something dark heeheehee. First things first though. MAJOR XENOBLADE SPOILERS. Like, for the love of Bionis will I be throwing these around, so I advise the UTMOST caution. Now, this is based on something that happens late game-ish of Xenoblade Chronicles (If you really want to know about the quest itself, watch Chuggaaconroy, episode 113, again Xenoblade spoilers abound~.)
Onto the story.
Balfalgar's Tomb
Another day, another sidequest in the Colony Nine area. To be perfectly honest, Shulk and the others are questioning why they are spending so much time with all these side things to do when the Bionis itself seeks to destroy all the life that lives upon it. Yet here they are in Tephra Cave helping out some woman decipher a book about the Giants. It didn't quite help that Sharla has to ride on Reyn's shoulders just so she can keep his mouth covered. If she wasn't doing that he'd be constantly screaming in fear because of all the spiders and arachnos crawling around the place. Only Shulk and Dunban actually knew why he was screaming but thankfully they don't need to put up with his insensate caterwauling with Sharla around to keep him quiet.
Riki stops walking as the group reaches the Heavenly Window. It's late and night and the Ether string is shimmering gently down to the bottom floor of Tephra Cave. He lifts his wings to let everyone else know they should stop moving.
"Riki hear something." The Heropon says quietly. "Voices. Riki hear voices."
Dunban lets out a slight shudder as he senses something in the air. "I don't hear anything, but at least I can tell Riki isn't leading us astray. There's something wrong."
Fiora rests a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Things will be fine Dunban. We've been to this area before, things shouldn't be much different from last time."
Shulk tips his head slightly to focus. He was able to feel a vision coming and he was thankful the group did take this bit of time to stop so he's able to channel his powers. Ever since Zanza emerged and the Monado boy returned to the world of the living, he's had difficulty in getting visions to reveal themselves. He isn't able to see much because of some sort of disturbance clouding his field of view, but he can hear what's going on. Faint figures of his friends can be seen as they slide down the walls of some structure. Despite that the blurriness of the vision, Reyn's cries are clear as day, and there is something about them that makes them differ from the ones he's used to hearing by now. What he's hearing is almost a mantra, just the soldier repeating 'we're done for' over and over again like a broken record.. Just before the vision ends he can hear Sharla say 'All of our Ether supplies are depleted'.
Everyone looks back at Shulk when they hear him gasp in surprise. Melia is the first to approach him and inquire why he's suddenly so freaked out. Though, the heir to the Monado denies he saw anything too horrible in the vision just now. He doesn't quite know how to take it at this moment, and his best friend is panicking enough as it is. He doesn't want to upset him any more than he really should, the redhead's fear of spiders is enough to deal with by itself. Quietly Shulk just urges the girls to go on ahead to find the Dazzling Tolosnia as to keep Reyn as far away from any unneeded spider encounters as they can. Fiora, Sharla, and Melia all nod and walk away to go defeat the monster and obtain it's heart for the offering back at Balfalgar's Tomb where Shura is.
After the trio of girls leave Dunban approaches his young ward to ask about the vision. Unfortunately he receives a similar response to what Melia got, with Shulk just saying that maybe now that Zanza is no longer in his body the god has the ability to manipulate his visions and give him false warnings. That and it's better to wait and see about where the vision could be taking place before the young adult can properly judge how valid the vision truly is.
A good two hours pass before the three girls return covered in blood and spider guts. Riki immediately screamed in fear seeing Fiora, Melia, and Sharla absolutely drenched in blue. Needless to say it took a lot of willpower to keep Reyn from screaming like a little girl about the sight. Especially since Sharla was begrudgingly holding the heart in her hands, the blood still slowly oozing out of the veins and arteries from where they were cut out by Fiora's swords. Thankfully for them Dunban almost happily grabbed the organ from the medic's hands and watched as his white shirt began to turn blue as the blood stained the cloth. It was always a wonder how this man found enjoyment in anything concerning spiders, and bugs in general, but mostly the spiders.
After safely tucking the organ into a container, everyone nods in agreement to just jump into the hole in the middle of the area to reach the bottom floor of Tephra Cave again, and by landing in the water of the Spring of Grief below the girls can hopefully get some of that blue off their skin and hair, unfortunately the same might not be able to be said about their clothes and armor. Thankfully for all seven of the party members the water is just deep enough that they won't hurt themselves upon impact.
Everyone arrives back at the tomb near Villia Lake to make the offering to the White Spiders. Shura is quite surprised, but somehow not disgusted, by the state of the girls after this little expedition to retrieve the offering. Retrieving the heart from it's container Shulk places it upon the altar carefully. Everyone watches as a nearby hidden doorway is revealed close to where the altar is. Confirming the observation, Shura asks the group to go in and investigate the ruins for anything in particular. Reyn visibly shudders at the thought of going in there, no one knows what could be lurking in the shadows of this long forgotten burial ground. Cautiously everyone walks into the corridor to check what all could be in there.
Dunban stops walking as another chill comes over him and he looks back to see Reyn hanging around the doorway. Riki and the others continue on ahead to check a small prayer room off to the side while the remaining two talk.
"Are you all right Reyn?" Dunban quietly asks as he takes note of the soldier's shaking form.
The teen shakes his head as he clutches his stomach. "Somethin' just ain't right Dunban. I can just feel it in my bones."
"I have to agree that things have seemed a little off the entire time we've been here."
Both males nervously sigh as they begin to make their way towards where the others had gone. After a few steps something can be heard crashing behind them and they look to see that the door has closed itself again. Blood quickly leaves Reyn's face as he feels his heart stop for a second at the sight. Quickly the young adult goes over to where the door was and drags out his driver so he can attempt to bash it down with the shield. He steps back a ways before rushing in full force, slamming right into the stone wall. Nothing happened though and there wasn't even as much as a scratch on the material. Everyone else has since left the small room to see where the crash had come from just to find Reyn in an absolute state of panic.
"No, no. We can't be trapped in here." The soldier says as he steps back again to try rushing at the wall again.
The second time was just as fruitless an attempt as the first had been. Perhaps the third time's the charm, this time with more feeling behind the maneuver. This time something can be heard cracking, unfortunately the sound didn't come from the wall, but instead something else had broke. Sharla watches as the Defence Force recruit collapses to the floor, screaming in agony. She pushes her way past the other party members to see exactly what's going on. The sight isn't at all pretty to look at. Reyn's shoulder has been dislocated and the arm is hanging a little loosely, beyond that though is that the forearm is slightly bent in a place it shouldn't be, a telltale sign he managed to break at least one of the bones. To make matters worse is that the lance part of the driver snapped and a small piece embedded itself within the soldier's arm. No, not just imbedded, but that piece of twisted metal is actually sticking through Reyn's arm to the other side. Tears are streaming down his face as he tries to refrain from moving his arm and furthering the damage he just caused.
Sharla quickly looks towards the other end of the hallway and yells at Melia to go check if there's another way out, or at least an open area so to try and heal Reyn. The bleeding is thankfully at a minimum due to how the metal is still lodged in the skin, but unfortunately it's a necessary evil to remove it as to prevent infection, as well as it just needs to come out period. Sadly no good news arrives after Melia returns, she says all of the ceiling is fairly low and the other end of the tomb leads to a drop off that is at least a six meter fall.
Panic becomes evident in everyone's eyes at the revelation. For Sharla, it's incredibly dangerous to even attempt firing her weapon in such a closed area, but Reyn still needs that weapon to be dislodged from his arm. Yet, if she does that he'll more than likely bleed out. Maybe she has an extra cartridge that Melia can utilize? She reaches into her medical supply bag and gasps as she feels nothing. She used the last of her cartridges and cylinders in that fight against the Tolosnia! Since everyone was so close to Colony 9 they figured they wouldn't need as many supplies with them considering they hadn't been expecting to venture into a Giants' tomb. Shulk watches as Dunban's calm demeanor fades away into terror and his entire body quakes as he presses himself against the wall, Riki swiftly joins him in his lap and curls up into a Nopon-loaf to try and sleep, hoping this is all just a bad dream he'll wake from soon. Melia and Fiora also join in Dunban's maneuver as the realization without a steady source of Ether to supply them, their time is short. The latter of the two girls is even more at risk to due only needing water and Ether to survive.
Reyn cries out loudly in the meanwhile as Sharla dislodges the metal in his arm to quickly bandage the wound. The blood is spurting out rapidly as the young adult's heart's been racing this entire time. The garnet liquid is slowly seeping into both his and Sharla's armor as it hits the open air.
Shulk stutters. "S-Sharla? Won't Reyn...?"
"All of our Ether supplies are depleted… I have to resort to attempting a makeshift splint and bandage." She replies quietly as she turns back to the older male to finish removing the driver from the soldier's arm to try and give him some help.
Dunban can be heard mumbling off to the side, a faint purple aura emanating from his being. "It's useless to try… we've reached our final resting place…"
"Dunban don't say that!" Fiora shouts at her brother. "It… It can't be! We have to get out of here!"
Everyone looks at each other as they let the words sink in. Thinking back to how close Colony 9 was, no one even considered bringing a light snack to munch on. The last time they all had eaten was that morning before setting out for the cave to tackle some unfinished business here. It was a dreadful thought to be cut off from any source of food, or even water for that matter. Thankfully the inevitable can be delayed a slight bit due to everyone filling their flasks back at Vilia Lake on the way back to this god forsaken crypt. Yet there is nothing they can do. If they jumped from that ledge Melia told them about, they would all seriously injure themselves in the process. At this rate, as the panic starts to flood their senses and the party begins to truly understand the gravity of the situation, by this time tomorrow they'll be gone.
All the will to even try and find a way faded quickly away as a few hours pass and not a single noise can be heard from the other side. Shura must have left by now, and judging by her story on why she was here alone in the first place, she's definitely not getting the Defence Force to try and break down the wall. Their strongest soldier isn't even powerful enough on his own! Shulk watches sadly as the bandages on Reyn's arm get even darker in color as he continues to bleed. His face is slowly paling as his body tries to compensate for the blood loss and clot the wound in his arm. To think that the strongest is the most vulnerable because of this.
"Maybe if I hadn't kept quiet about the vision…" Shulk mumbles under his breath as he unstraps his replica Monado from his back to look at it. "Maybe we wouldn't be here…"
Even more time passes, but it seems like an eternity. Still no help has arrived to assist them. Dunban was right, this will be their final resting place. Zanza has won…