Xenoblade Chronicles: A Forgotten Dream

Shulk and the group had lost track of time since they had entered the Mechonis Field due to the wave after wave of Mechon that they had encounter along with them not being able to see the sky from inside the Mechonis. As the group climbed higher and higher within the Mechonis the group discovered what looked like a dead end guarded by a bunch of Mechon but before they headed back the way they had come Fiora had noticed what looked like a bunch of consoles behind them. It was then decided by the group that they would fight these Mechon in a hope of discovering any information that they could us to get themselves out of the Mechonis.

With the Mechon defeated, the group were now able to access the consoles, Shulk and Fiora began to examine them to try and understand what they did but after half an hour at the consoles they were only able to discovery that these closes accessed a bulkhead somewhere within the Mechonis. With no better idea's Shulk used the consoles to open up the Bulkhead while everyone else within the group looked in all directions in a hope of discover where this Bulkhead was.

Within seconds Riki noticed something moving in the distance and as he told everyone to look in his direction they could all see some form of light beginning to appear through the bulkhead. As the gap grew bigger they could all see the open sky along with part of the Bionis and with this sight now in front of them the group began to make their way towards the newly open path while dealing with any Mechon that they had so far evaded.

As Shulk and the group got closer to the entrance of the bulkhead they could all see the Bionis in all its glory along with the clear sky beginning turning into an orange colour which normally signalled the fact that nightfall was not that far away. Upon seeing this Dunban had made the suggestion that that they should find somewhere to set up camp so that they could get some rest, with everyone in agreement they began to find somewhere set up camp. With the location found and the camp site set up Fiora and Melia began to prepare food with the help of Riki while Sharla on the other had took this opportunity to perform some maintenance on her rifle as did Shulk with Reyn's Driver.

After the group had eaten, Shulk took it upon himself to nominate himself for the first watch but within seconds of making this suggestion Dunban refused to expect it due to the fact that if there was one person within the group that needed to rest the most it would be Shulk. With everyone on Dunban's side Shulk gave in and decided to try and find somewhere where he could seat himself down while also propping himself up against a wall and once he did he then began to close his eyes and within seconds Shulk felt himself fall asleep.

The next thing Shulk saw was himself standing on a metallic walkway that was leading towards a massive metal sphere in front of him and what he could only describe as a factory below the walkway. As Shulk looked ahead he could see that the whole group along with Alvis, Dickson and what looked like a Machina were heading towards this sphere. Shulk tired to see if he could get a better view of the Machina so that he could find out if he had seen them before but that was not the case because Shulk had then noticed that Melia had stopped a little further in front of him and began to talk to him.

"Is everything alright with you Shulk?"

Shulk didn't know how to reply back to Melia but it was at that moment that Shulk realised that he was nothing more than a spectator to the events that were beginning to unfold in front of him.

"Yes everything is fine Melia, Thank you for asking."

"If anything is troubling you Shulk just remember I am here for you and I am willing to help you in any way that I can."

As Shulk thanked Melia for her kind words, Dunban had turned around and noticed that both Shulk and Melia had fallen behind them and because of this shouted out to them to see if everything was all right. Both Melia and Shulk replied back by saying yes while grabbing one another's hands and beginning to picked up their pace so that they could catch up with the group. Shulk watched as the two of them began to close the gap on the group but before they all came together Shulk noticed that everything around him was began to fade away but it was being replaced with what looked like the garden within the Imperial Villa that Shulk and the group went to before Metal Face attacked Prison Island. Seconds later Shulk saw himself standing next to Melia looking towards a young girl running around in the grass, the young girl looked no more than five years old but before Shulk could adjust to what he was seeing everything began to fade away again like before but this time he found himself where he was seconds before on the walkway overlooking a massive factory.

The only difference was that instead of Melia stopping a little bit in front of him it was Fiora this time, everything played out as it had last time but with Fiora instead. As Dunban said what he said last time Shulk noticed both himself and Fiora grab one another's hand while picking up the pass but this time Shulk also noticed that Melia had stopped and as the two of them passed her, Shulk noticed that Melia was trying to say something to him but before he could begin to make out what she had said everything began to fade away again. As the view in front of him changed again, Shulk noticed that he was now in a wooden room that he had not seen before with what looked like an older version of himself laying on top of a bed with Melia standing over him while she cried but before any of this could play out a familiar male voice began to speaking to him.

As Shulk began to wake up the first image that Shulk saw was the floor of the Mechonis along with what looked like a pair of black trouser in front of him, seconds later Shulk heard the same familiar voice speak again.

"Are you okay Shulk?"

Upon hearing those words Shulk knew that it was Dunban but before he answered his question Shulk decided to get himself off the floor and to his feet and once on his feet Shulk took a few steps away from the group before answering Dunban original question.

"Yes, I am fine Dunban why do you ask?"

Dunban heisted for a moment before answering the question.

"I had noticed that you were moving around quite a bit while laying on the floor so I decided to see if you were okay?"

Shulk was happy to see that Dunban cared about his own will being but what Shulk couldn't understand was how he had gone from leaning up against a wall to sleeping on the floor.

"Sorry to worry you Dunban, the only thing that could explain what was going on was that I was in a deep sleep."

As soon as Shulk had finished speaking he could tell that Dunban had another question that he wanted to ask due to his facial expression.

"Are you sure that it wasn't because you were having a vision?"

Upon hearing Dunban words Shulk began to question himself about it due to the fact that this wouldn't have been the first time that Shulk had, had a vision while he was sleeping but then again Shulk also knew that he hadn't had a vision since he met Zanza a top of Prison Island.

"If it had anything to do with a vision then I would have remember what I had seen but I don't remember anything from the moment that I had fallen asleep so I don't believe that it has anything to do with a vision."

Dunban seemed happy with Shulk's answer and decided to leave it as it was but before Dunban walking away Dunban told Shulk to get some more sleep before morning. Upon listening to Dunban's request Shulk began to head back towards where he was seated before he was awaken by Dunban but once Shulk had gotten himself conformable and tired to close his eyes to fall asleep but Shulk found himself unable to do so due to the fact that his mind was still trying to figure out what he had seen.

As the hours began to pass Shulk ended up giving up on sleeping and just sat there with his eyes open staring at the Bionis and the sky behind it and as the hours went on Shulk began to forget small details about his dream or vision. The next thing Shulk noticed was the night sky was beginning to lose it black colour and was being to be replaced with the bright orange that would appear before turning blue. As Shulk watched the sky change colour he knew that within the hour everyone would begin to stir which could only mean that they would begin to get themselves ready along with packing up of the campsite before continuing with their journey.

As everyone began to wake, Shulk placed everything that he had seen last night to the back of his mind and began to help everyone with the clearing up and packing of their campsite.

It was while Shulk was helping everyone with the packing that Melia noticed that Shulk had the face that looked like something was troubling him which led Melia to ask Shulk what was troubling him.

"Shulk you seem a bit distracted is they something on your mind and are you okay?"

Shulk knew that he was never good at hiding anything from those around him and for Melia to notice so quickly left Shulk trying to come up with something to say that would deflect her questions. In those brief moments Shulk also wrestled with the idea of telling Melia what he had seen overnight but in the end decided not to say anything on the subject due to the fact that he still didn't know if it was a dream or a vision let alone trying to explain it to Melia so that she wouldn't get offended by it.

"Yes everything is alright Melia, I just didn't sleep as well as I had hoped."

"Shulk suspected that Melia wasn't happy with his reply but Melia had decided not to ask any more questions on the subject. Once everything was packed up, Shulk and the group continued on with the journey through the Mechonis Field and after a few hours of continues fighting with Mechon, Shulk had completely forgotten what he seen last night, until they were on their way to destroy the Apocrypha Generator and take on Egli.

With Junks docked at the Veneration Conduit and the group began to making their way through the system towards the Central Factory that would take them towards the Mechonis Core were Egli was located. As they step out of the veneration system Vanea pointed out towards a walkway that was suspected above the Central Factory that lead to the large metal sphere at the end of it.

"That walkway is where we need to go to destroy the Apocrypha Generator and get to the Mechonis Core."

With that the group began to make their way down towards the bridge and as they got closer to it, Shulk began to get a feeling of Déjà vu that he couldn't explained. On a number of occasions members of the group kept on checking on Shulk to see if he was okay to which Shulk replied back by saying that he was fine but it took Melia asking the right question at the right time for Shulk to open up a bit.

"Shulk, since we started to make our way down towards the Apocrypha Generator you have had this looked of concern on your face, what is the matter?"

"I feel like I have been here before but I can't remember when."

"Melia took a moment to look around before replying back to him but when she did Melia got this feeling that her answer didn't help Shulk.

"It was too long ago that we were making our way through the Central Factory towards Agniratha, and because it is below us now you might be getting that feeling that we are still down there."

Shulk wanted to believe Melia in what she had said but deep down something just didn't feel right and as the group arrived on the bridge, Shulk and the others began what looked like the long road towards Apocrypha Generator.