15/05/22: As Dunban likes to remind us, timing is everything. And it must be somewhat true considering my economics professors repeat the same lesson. Which is why I'm posting this long after XC3 was announced. So, no, Melia isn't going to wear black all of a sudden, and Shulk won't spent his life building Mechon for her army - sorry for that. This story leaned into AU territory before, now it merely leans a little farther. I wrote this last November and have struggled to edit it ever since, also because I'm not sure if this meets anyone's taste except my own. (The character death warning is no joke.) I guess we will find out.

For those of you who are wondering, the story cover is my own, but I didn't study art design. Please be forgiving. Whoever recognises the chapter title gets an imaginary cupcake from me. Without further ado...

No one knew the future for certain – not even the man who wished this world into existence. But that didn't stop Shulk from wondering.

The sunbathed spires and meadows drifted alongside the clouds. The vast sky yawning beneath this flimsy patch of land didn't seem to trouble the critters and creatures grazing nearby, and the rivers sparkled and invited Shulk to awe no matter where he turned his eyes. To the north, beyond the mountain ridges, the Telethia circled the white towers of Alcamoth like a swarm of majestic guardians. On other days, this scenery never failed to put a smile on Shulk's face, and he would marvel at the astronomical number of joules of force it must have required to lift the Bionis' Shoulder into the air.

But today, the breeze in his hair left him cold. The murmuring of the nearby waterfall gave him no comfort.

Instead of the spires and meadows, Shulk's eyes rested on the horizon, on a point he couldn't quite narrow down. The future. Yes, no one knew how it looked like, this mystical view beyond the mist of time. Not anymore. Shulk had made sure of that when he had wished for a world with no gods. A world with no gods – and no visions.

I have an ill premonition – disaster… complete ruin, inescapably looming over our future. I know not why, but that is the vague dread I feel when I consider the rift.

Shulk rolled a pebble across the rock he was sitting on. Strange. He hadn't given Melia's words much thought at the time. Why did their exchange at the imperial palace come back to him now? After all, they had defeated the Fog King, and the rift above Alcamoth's sky had vanished. The disaster Melia had foreseen had melted into a nightmare, with no bearing on the outcome of their fight. Not a vision. Yet Shulk failed to tear himself from these words, he kept staring at the horizon, hoping against reason to somehow espy a glimmer of that future on the wave crests.

Disaster… complete ruin… the future…

Shulk was treading the labyrinth of his thoughts in senseless circles, jumping from past to future without finding a clear path in either. Reyn might punch his arm and remind him to stop stroking his chin like a bearded hermit whose single joy consisted in the composition of some vocal riddles. At least Shulk didn't talk to himself.

Most of the time.

His brooding had to have shown on his face regardless because a voice broke through the doors of his thought labyrinth and dragged him back into the sun.

"What's with that face? Did Riki eat all your biscuits again?"

Shulk looked up and found himself face to face with Fiora. The sun highlighted her gold hair, and she wore her most disarming smile, the one he had come to associate with beaches and a feeling of a broken engine made whole again.

The warmth seeped back into his body.

"I've just been thinking," Shulk said.

"No news there."

Fiora fidgeted her fingers behind her back for a moment, but when Shulk failed to offer her a seat, she claimed the unoccupied space on the rock next to him without an invitation. A little budging and shimmying later, she jutted her nose into the sun and relished the breeze. Shulk relished her profile.

In pursuit of this all-encompassing warmth in his chest, he might have stared for a moment too long. Fiora craned an eye open and grinned.

"What were you thinking about?" she asked.

"Huh? What?"

She chuckled. "When you said you were thinking – what was it that kept this brilliant mind so occupied that you didn't notice Reyn calling after you twice?"

Shulk writhed. At the other side of the meadow, Reyn stood cross-armed amidst a wrangle of three over-enthusiastic Nopon and twisted his face in an effort to add his brows to his hairline. Next to him, Sharla also raised her brows, but her concern seemed to have found a target in Reyn rather than Shulk.

"Sorry…"

Fiora leaned back, and in doing so re-established distance between Shulk's restless fingers and her own. Much to his confusion.

"Don't worry, he's just nervous about the upcoming fight," she said. "Unlike you, most of us have been short on training for a while. You have been so quiet about what happened, I had to waylay Melia after the coronation for some details. Next time you and her go to explore new ground, I want to come with, okay?"

"Okay," Shulk said. "Then you're tired of the new Colony 9 already?"

"Of course not! One can appreciate their home and still look forward to a little adventuring. When you travelled all across Bionis and got to see all these new places and all these new people, you can't tell me you only thought about the fastest way to get back to Colony 9."

"I guess not…"

Fiora jumped to her feet. "See? We have an entire new world to explore. Colony 9 is just a tiny spot on a map of which we can't even tell how big it is." She walked to a position from where, after tiptoeing, she could catch a glimpse of the ocean shimmering far below, a boundless blue. "Beyond the horizon, that's where the next adventure waits. And we could be the first ones to see it all. Trees that touch the clouds with their leaves. Entire mountains of ether crystals. Places where you can walk on the sky itself – who knows what you created when you made your wish. Doesn't that excite you?"

Shulk could not deny the smile that had conquered his lips. The prospect of hidden artifacts and technologies, knowledge no Homs from Bionis could fathom in their most divine dreams, all that did excite him. But neither scriptures nor circuits were responsible for the comfortable tingle in his fingertips.

It was her.

Fiora who after death and mind control and a life on borrowed time still looked at the horizon with a gleam in her eyes. The same gleam from ten years ago when she had scaled the cliffs around Colony 9 to sneak a peek beyond the borders of her world. Dunban had threatened to lock her in her room until next summer when he found out, but Shulk had admired her courage in his usual quiet way.

Looking at Fiora now, one arm outstretched as if she could already grasp the adventurous future, he felt the same awe as back then. She was so alive, so lively, and close enough to hold, if he dared to reach out.

All thoughts of disaster and complete ruin fled his mind, evaporated by pure warmth. Fiora smiled. After all that had happened, a piece of how things used to be, no matter how small, had survived.

"Then let's do it," Shulk said. "Once everything has quieted down here and in Alcamoth, I will borrow Junks again, and we will see how far the engine takes us. That is… if you don't mind my company."

Fiora's eyes lit up. "I would love to! And I will take your word for it. So you better don't get too comfortable in your lab once we get back to the colony."

"Although we will have to make quite a few preparations." Shulk stroked his chin. "Provisions, of course. I should give the Monado REX+ another check-up just to make sure its ether channel didn't overload some circuits during the fight with the Fog King; I want to replace the insulators just to be safe. And Junk's second engine could use a new set of cylinders to reduce energy consumption…"

"I think in that case, I'm just going to leave the technical stuff to you," Fiora said. "But looking at Reyn, I bet he can't wait for you to entertain him with details."

She laughed, and after a glance at Reyn, who struggled to maintain a grim face amidst an assault of three furballs, Shulk joined.

"You two seem to be in high spirits."

Shulk and Fiora turned towards the newcomer. Melia was approaching them in her usual stilted way, as if she had to impress an assembly of tutors and ambassadors with her straight posture. Although the slew of meetings and late-night paperwork that came with her new empress title manifested in rings under her eyes, her exhaustion failed to taint her smile. Finally, she carried her title as hope of the High Entia as a crown instead of a curse.

"I apologise for the wait," Melia said, and her small headwings bounced when she bowed her chin.

Fiora shook her head. "Save that for Reyn, he's been begging to get started since dawn. 'Nothing like a good fight', or something. He's probably waiting for a chance to impress Sharla."

"Or perhaps for a chance to convince himself that his abilities have remained as sharp as ever." Melia sighed. "I am grateful that all of you offered your aid against the remaining Fogbeasts so willingly, but I should not have asked for such a favour."

"Don't be like that," Shulk said.

"Exactly. I for my part am happy to test this new body in the field." Fiora stretched to prove her point. "And if I had known about your little trip to Alcamoth beforehand, you can be sure that I would have tagged along as well."

Melia clutched her staff, and she took a moment to clear her throat before she responded. "Thank you, truly. I appreciate the support all of you have given me. Not just with rebuilding Alcamoth but with personal matters as well. I would not stand here as the person I am without you." She paused, and her gaze travelled over Shulk, Fiora, and the remaining party members nearby. "It will be strange to continue without your presence beside me."

"Come on, don't make this sound like a farewell." Fiora linked arms with Melia. "Even after we've dealt with the Fogbeasts, we will still come to visit you in Alcamoth so often that you get sick of us. And I hope you'll return the favour."

"Yes. Gladly."

"Great, then let's show these fog things who's the empress around here. I feel like I can take ten of them."

Fiora skipped towards the former Companions' Cape and dragged Melia with her. The fact that the ruins from the days of the Giants now housed a fog-infested Kromar plus supports didn't dampen her enthusiasm in the slightest.

Unlike Fiora, Shulk had seen the damage a single Fogbeast could cause amidst a line of High Entia soldiers, and he had felt the strain on his muscles while fighting them. Even with the rift gone, Fogbeasts remained a serious threat to the inhabitants of the Shoulder. Which was why Melia had asked for their help in clearing the area of their unnerving presence in the first place.

"Fiora," Shulk called after her, "don't overexert yourself out there, okay?"

She spun on her heels and grinned. "Are you worried about me? How sweet."

"It's just that you haven't had a lot of fighting experience with your new body. There are still so many variables… You probably can't take as many hits as you used to."

"Shulk, I'm not made of glass, you know? Besides, you didn't build these for me because of their looks."

Fiora closed her hands around the twin daggers at her hips. White with red highlights, and sharp enough to sever the limps of a small Igna. Shulk had reduced the size compared to Fiora's Mechon short swords to account for the limited muscle potential of her Homs body, but the channelling function for ether had received a substantial upgrade. The daggers ranked among his better inventions. And Fiora wielded them with both speed and accuracy.

So why did his chest constrict when seeing her armed again?

"I know," Shulk mustered, "you are capable of fighting just like I am. You proved that countless times. And I have no doubt that you will prove it again. It's just that I can no longer see…"

"Yeah, I know," Fiora said. "But we're past that. Not knowing what's coming, that's part of the fun, right? Try to cheer up a little. For Melia's sake!"

"I cannot see why—"

"Sssh, I almost have him. Nothing works better against him than the guilt card."

Shulk, who had no trouble hearing Fiora's and Melia's hushed exchange, fought with himself. But surrounded by the people that mattered most to him, why should he doubt?

"You're right," he said. "It's just one Fogbeast. And there's nine of us."

Fiora's smile widened. "That's more like it."

"As a unit we have succeeded in overcoming the very creator of our old world," Melia added. "We shall benefit from this experience and, if we stand together, crush the enemy and protect this new world. For good this time, I hope."

"Hear, hear! Finally some positivity. Let's not keep the others waiting then."

With that, Fiora strode into battle, head high and hungry for a diversion from the carefree life in Colony 9. Her enthusiasm was infectious. When Shulk had explored the Shoulder with Melia, Kino, and Nene, he had soldiered on through his battles with the local fauna; without the threat of the Mechon or Zanza, his attacks lacked their doggedness but also a little of their passion.

This time would be different. This time he would draw from the strength of all his friends. His… family.

Even with the word stuck in the silent corners of his head, it sparked a warmth that spread until its comforting arms enwrapped his body to the whole.

After a last look at the glistering sea, Shulk ran after Fiora.

"Look who's decided to honour us with their presence," Reyn said when the two groups joined. His efforts of a mean face lost their impact thanks to Riki's cheerful dance at his feet.

Melia took the ironic comment without batting an eye. "I should be the one honoured. You must have struggled to take time out of your crowded schedule and lend us a hand in battle. After all, I hear you have a great many responsibilities that fill your days."

Sharla laughed. "Oh yeah, lounging around at the beach keeps him very occupied."

"Hey, I'm not slacking off all the time. I'm still doing my push-ups." Reyn lifted his shield-gunlance with visible effort. "Once in a while…"

"Riki hope Reyn not stand in way when Fogbeasts face combined power of heropon and future heropon. Would be shame for Reyn's big head."

Reyn cracked his knuckles. "Just you wait, furball. Once we're done with the Fogbeasts, I'm gonna use you for push-ups. I wanna see you hide behind your littlepons then."

"Kino not littlepon anymore!" Kino jumped out of Riki's shadow and swelled his chest. Despite his best efforts, he still looked like a small ball of wool next to his father and sister. "Kino soon heropon, and awesomeness will make eyes pop out of Mister Reyn's head."

Reyn opened his mouth for a counter, but Dunban interrupted. "As amusing as your bickering may be, I would like to remind you that we haven't met here for a picnic. Shulk, what do we know about the enemy we are dealing with here?"

From one moment to the next, all eyes turned to Shulk, and even Riki interrupted his dance to listen. After being dragged into the centre of attention so forcefully, Shulk needed a second to collect his thoughts before he answered.

"These Fogbeasts as we call them are creatures of Bionis poisoned by the Fog King's influence," he said. "Once the fog has taken possession of them, they become highly aggressive and will target us even from a distance. But it's not their increased strength and durability that makes them so dangerous. Fogbeasts can and will draw nearby monsters into the fight and infect them as well. We have to be careful."

Dunban glanced at Fiora. "Did you hear that, sister? No unnecessary stunts, is that clear?"

"Well, if anything happens, I'm just gonna count on the magnificent hero of the Homs to pull me out of trouble."

"I think I have grown out of that title."

Fiora grinned. "Only in your dreams, brother. I'm going to call you that way for the rest of time."

"Once heropon, always heropon. Nene knows all too well. Can tell long story to confirm." Nene rolled her eyes at Riki and Kino, who had abandoned the conversation in favour of the bug Riki had caught.

"Oh great, another long story," Reyn said. "Shulk, do me a favour and get on with the briefing before I'll lose my head. And make it sound optimistic for once, yeah?"

"We do have an advantage on our side," Shulk said. "If my theory is correct, the disappearance of the rift and the Fog King should have weakened any remaining Fogbeasts. Like a machine running on stored energy with its power supply cut off."

"Still, we do not know how long these creatures can sustain themselves on their stored energy," Melia added. "Or if they can reproduce. I would feel assured if we do not wait to test out either hypothesis."

Shulk nodded and unclipped the Monado REX+ from his back. The ether circuits pulsated in a bright blue. "This should give us the final edge we need. As long as we keep the Kromar within the ether field, we can damage it, fog or not."

"Riki ready for big-smash-bang-attack with sidekicks."

Nene and Kino bounced and waved with their furred wings. "Cannot wait to see dadapon in action!"

"Then let's send the Fogbeast back to the hole it crawled out of," Fiora said, and with a wink at Shulk she added, "I have an appointment I'd hate to delay."

Shulk's head swirled from the sheer warmth radiating from her expression. The rest of the party bit back a remark, and even Reyn swallowed a knowing grin after Sharla slammed an elbow to his ribs.

They had a fight to win and a future to secure.

Torn tent canvases billowed between the ruins of the Companion's Cape. The wind dashed across the cliffs with more force here and blew a handful of ash flakes out of the frozen fireplace. They tumbled eastwards, where Gran Dell's waterfalls sparkled in the sun, eager to escape the chill creeping between the Giants' ruins.

The party snuck through the camp with appropriate care. At any moment, they expected fog to seep out of the ground, and the shriek of a nearby Tokilos sent the majority into a panicked shuffle in search for something to shoot at. Only Melia and Dunban kept a level head and pushed forward.

Shulk threw a glance in Melia's direction. They were nearing the headland where Gael'gar had sworn off her vision of the High Entia's future. Rather than accepting the past and the marble halls of Alcamoth, he had chosen his destiny in death. A cold, lonely death that no longer promised a return to Bionis.

The burning resentment in Gael'gar's eyes unsettled Shulk even now. After all, this man had not only rejected Melia but also the world Shulk had created. And in unnoticed moments while tinkering with the conduits of Alcamoth's teleporters during the past weeks of rebuilding, he had found himself wondering about the reasons why.

If Melia shared those thoughts, she hid them behind a determined march.

Fiora once again picked up on Shulk's contemplations. One could think she had an antenna for his moods.

She took his hand and squeezed it. "Good luck out there."

The touch sent a warm ripple through his arm. "You too."

"Thanks, I'll need it. I have a lot of catching-up to do after you and Melia already dealt with the main enemy. Not to mention the six months where I was just a comatose dead weight to all of you. Lean back and let me handle this one. Otherwise I have to fear you are outrunning me faster than I can catch up."

Too soon, Fiora pulled back her hands. She placed them on her daggers, but it looked more like she was hugging herself. In search for a support Shulk failed to provide?

Then the moment passed, and the smile returned to her face.

Dark spots infected the grass under their feet as they pushed forward. A rumble came from the rocks like an outcry of the rage imbued in the world itself. Shulk steeled his grip around the Monado's hilt.

That was when the massive Kromar leaped into the open. Nene, who had hopped ahead of Melia, had aggroed the creature. Fog wavered around its body like a perverted fire that swallowed its limbs, and the stench of sulphur and decay encircled the party. Little of the original monster remained, all of it consumed by ether, rage, and darkness. Its eyes burned orange.

The Fogbeast swung its clawed arm, not at Nene but at Melia. The air cracked with energy, dark and hungry, and Shulk struggled to breathe.

But Melia evaded. Her boots scraped the dust, the fog-tainted claws tore into the ground, and the party scattered for the most beneficial positions. Sharla took aim first, but her thunder bullet dispersed before it made contact. Reyn and Kino hit at nothing.

Still the Fogbeast had its eyes set on Melia. Could it know about the crucial part she had played in destroying its creator, the Fog King?

Shulk wasted only a second to think about possible implications. The Monado REX+ pulsated in the same frequency as his heartbeat. One after the other, the exhaust pipes sprung to life and spew unfiltered ether. Pure, blue light repainted the headland.

Even without visions, Shulk held the power to overcome all obstacles in his hands. The steel in his palm trembled with anticipation.

He pivoted, and the Monado painted a blue circle. His head spun, the overload of ether filled him with heat and confidence at the same time. Fiora shuddered next to him.

But the Fogbeast raged all the more. Where its shadows had wafted above the grass blades, now a blue aura glowed, the ether field that would bring about its undoing.

"It's vulnerable!" Shulk shouted. "Attack before it draws in reinforcements!"

And as one, the party of nine charged.

Bullet after bullet, stroke after stroke, and bolt after bolt, they chipped away the Fogbeast's health. The Kromar resisted their efforts; all the shadows it had amassed swelled the creature's frame to twice its normal height, and its wild swings shattered earth and stone alike. But against nine opponents who harmonised better than any set of gears, it could not prevail.

Fog flaked and darkened the sky.

The stench of scorched grass didn't deter the union of Homs, Nopon, and High Entia.

"Not long now."

As if it had heard Reyn's comment, the Fogbeast wailed. The ruins quivered, Kino lost his footing, and Shulk's vision shrunk to a fog-framed tunnel. He froze mid-motion.

Oh no.

For a moment, only the enraged wind howled across the floating headland. Then the local wildlife answered the call.

Other Kromar dashed into the fray, swinging clubs and swords, a Pterix bared its deadly fangs, and Tokilos stooped from the sky in a burst of fog and feathers. In all of them seethed the urge to kill, regardless of their own survival. The creatures they once were had disappeared; they had devolved into puppets for the Fogbeast to use and abuse at a whim.

Shulk's fingers cramped around the Monado's hilt. He didn't know where to look first, left and right the infected monsters tackled his friends. Dunban disappeared in a swarm of enemies, Reyn tried in vain to pull hostile attention away from Sharla and onto himself, and Melia was retreating under the relentless barrage of the Fogbeast.

A shadow zoomed into his periphery.

Shulk turned but too late, the swing from the Kromar would daze if not outright kill him. The licking shadows already seared the skin in his bare forearms.

Before the attack landed, a pair of daggers sliced through the Kromar's back. The damage transcended any defence boost the creature might have gained from the fog, and with a final hiss, it sunk to the ground. The shadows fled their dead host. What remained was a heap of scales and wrangled reptile limbs.

And Fiora, who spun her daggers to target the next enemy.

"You wouldn't want to let me down now, would you?" she said, a little out of breath. "I guess these guys are a little tougher than I though. Go and take down the big one, I'll watch your back."

Shulk took a deep breath. His senses refocused and brought order into the chaos of shouts and movements. "Thank you, Fiora. I—"

"Yeah, you owe me. Now do your thing and protect the future."

He nodded, and after collecting a last look of encouragement, he dove back into battle. The enemy knew neither hesitance nor exhaustion, it clawed and snapped and sliced for flesh with the same determination as the ocean sloshed against the cliffs around Colony 9. Everywhere the fog slithered around the battlefield, snuck beneath Shulk's clothes until his arms trembled.

But the familiar voices all around spurred him on. One after the other, fog-infested monsters writhed under the power of the Monado, and a glimmer of sunshine returned to the headland each time. Shulk vaulted a Kromar's tail spin, the last obstacle between him and the Fogbeast. Rage, inflamed by Melia's ether attacks, had driven the creature far beyond sanity. It roared, it pawed, and above all it yearned to kill. This was not a Homs or a High Entia to reason with. If Shulk stretched out a hand as he had done with Egil, the Fogbeast would bite the hand off.

For the threat it posed to the people of Bionis and the future Shulk wished for, it needed to fall.

His grasp around the Monado tightened, and with all the force he had to offer, he slashed the Fogbeast's back.

An agonised, eerily mortal scream thundered in his ears.

The retaliatory attack swept him from his feet, but Shulk reforged his balance in time to block a fog tentacle heading for his head. Now he had the Fogbeast's undivided attention. Its burning eyes narrowed.

"You have had your way for long enough in this world that you don't belong in." Shulk raised the Monado. "I will be your opponent."

As an answer, the Fogbeast pounced.

Even without the rift, this creature born from shadows possessed an unmatched will to endure. Even as its puppets were sliced, shot, and vaporised, the Fogbeast clung to its miserable existence. It struggled as the Homs had struggled under Zanza's reign, unable to outrun the end yet trying all the same.

Shulk deafened himself to any sense of pity for the creature before him. His training, the moves he had performed a thousand times in battle, guided his hand, and the ether pulsated in his veins. At the edge of his consciousness, Melia, Dunban, Riki, and Kino assailed the wavering fog arms, and Shulk synchronised with their rhythm, slashing, slicing, leaping, and retreating in a dance he had danced a thousand times.

Until everything toppled.

An unnatural squall, like air disquieted by a massive turbine, tore into the headland. Shulk stumbled, and he needed Dunban's outstretched hand to climb back to his feet. The flapping of wings reached his ears through the haze.

"Dinobeasts?" Riki asked somewhere to his left.

Shulk looked up.

Telethia, an entire swarm of them, were zeroing in on the battlefield. It seemed that every last Telethia roaming the skies around Alcamoth had abandoned the silent watch over their old home to feast. The excessive amounts of ether thrown around here had lured them.

Melia leaned on her staff for support, but her shoulders relaxed while her eyes followed the gliding Telethia. "They have come to our aid once more."

Perhaps the creatures had maintained more of their High Entian memories than their looks suggested. Even in this mutated shape, the former guards, scientists, and civilians fought to protect their home.

Shulk and Melia shared a smile as the first Telethia in the procession dove towards the headland and the Fogbeast cowering out in the open. Mutated wings and fog collided, and the resulting burst of ether knocked Shulk's party members from their feet. The Telethia turned for a second assault, and its brothers and sisters followed. Fog-infested creatures disappeared between the maws of Telethia. Tufts of grass whirled in the air under the force of claws and wings. Little by little, the shadows retreated.

Alone, the Fogbeast swayed in the storm. It trembled. But the Telethia had no ear for its wordless curses. Neither did Shulk.

He exchanged a look with Melia, and she nodded. Her eyes glowed a bright gold, the manifestation of her fighting trance, Element Burst.

The Fogbeast wailed, and its narrow eyes darted from one fighter to the other, hating both but fearing their powers with all the might its pathetic will to survive lend it.

Then, Shulk and Melia unleashed the ether flowing through them. Her staff emitted pure brightness, and the Monado erased the shadows with blue light. Both attacks struck the wounded Fogbeast at the same time.

The air exploded, a Telethia cried, and the shadows dispersed in the warmth of the sun as though they had never existed at all.

Only a small, mangled Kromar remained where the Fogbeast had reigned.

The future was saved once again.

Shulk took a deep breath, devoid of fog and full of ocean salt. Cheers erupted, and he smiled as Kino and Nene engaged in a double high-five.

Reyn rolled his shoulders. "Oh yeah, baby. We should do this more often."

"Are you sure you have room for that in your schedule?" Sharla elbowed Reyn, but she was smiling too.

Overhead, the Telethia restlessly circled. With the Fogbeast gone and the overabundance of ether seeping back into the ground, nothing kept them here anymore. One of the smaller specimens did a doubletake and nosedived underneath the headland, but its search came up empty. For the fraction of a moment its eyeless face seemed to look at the tiny people and right at Shulk. As if it waited for instructions. Or maybe it was saying its farewell.

With a rumble from deep within the creature's chest, the Telethia wheeled around, and like a shoal of Piranhax its brothers and sisters turned to leave as well. But instead of Alcamoth, they headed away from the Shoulder, towards the open sea. They glid between the clouds and grew smaller by the minute.

"Oi, get back here!" Reyn waved his fists at the sky. "You could at least stick around to hear our thanks."

"Will they… not return?" Melia asked.

Her eyes rested on Shulk, but he barely noticed. His brain was running rampant with speculations. Maybe the Telethia sensed a distant ether source. Maybe they had only roamed around Alcamoth because of the presence of Fogbeasts, and with their threat purged, their instinct called them elsewhere. Maybe Zanza's death…

But Shulk had no time to finish that thought.

"Shulk… I'm sorry." Fiora's voice, from somewhere behind him.

He turned.

She was hugging herself. The red gem of her necklace glowed in the sunlight. And underneath her arms showed a growing spot of crimson.

He hadn't seen it.

The cheers had died, only the screams in Shulk's head persisted. Before Fiora fell, Dunban reached her side, and his arms locked around her tighter than any vice. But it was no use.

Shulk dropped to his knees beside them, yanked Fiora out of Dunban's embrace. Everything was cold.

He hadn't seen it.

Her hazy green eyes settled on his face, and she managed a smile. "I have to cancel our appointment. I guess you did outrun me after all."

A warm, slippery liquid washed against Shulk's fingers and drenched both their sleeves in red. "No…"

"It's okay." Fiora placed a hand on his cheek. "These things happen. We wished to live day by day, step by step, not knowing what the future holds. Remember?"

Shulk refused to remember.

Her breaths came slower, rattled with pain. "I'm glad it was with you, Shulk. Now go live out your future… without me."

Shulk felt Melia's hand on his shoulder while he frantically searched the faces of the bystanders for help, for advice, anything. His focus came to rest on Sharla, and he pleaded. But they both knew the limits of her healing bullets.

Underneath the swarm of migrating Telethia, while their bright ether feathers beat against the wind, Shulk pressed Fiora to his chest. Her cheek was cold against his shoulder.

"Fiora?"

A moment ago, she had been so alive, so lively, and close enough to hold if he dared to reach out.

He did.

But she was gone.

"FIORA!"

A/N ... yeah. I can't even say this is the first time I killed a major character in the first chapter. In my defence, the idea for this story came to me when I was still in the middle of chapter 17 of XC1, when the game wouldn't shut up about how Fiora was living on borrowed time and that her Mechon body would fail sooner rather than later. This chapter here is more of a prologue than anything, the next one should give you a better understanding of where I'm going with this. (I really need to stop barging into new fandoms with these kinds of long, anti-consumer fics.)