Despite the fact that I'm taking my time between updates on this story, I'm actually having fun thinking up scenarios for different things in this. It's funny to actually imagine GS people in the XC universe, not only because they're vastly different, but because the idea is just amusing in general. Maybe it's just me, but I think that it'd be awesome if Camelot and Monolithsoft teamed up for a game; it wouldn't even have to be a crossover, just if they teamed up to make something! I'd say Square Enix and Atlus should team up with them too, but they aren't solely Nintendo-affiliated companies, so it probably wouldn't happen…
Anyway, I'm surprised to have gotten a fav/follower, but grateful nonetheless! Thanks to CruelRuin for reviewing! And geez, you're pretty set for this crossover series if you've played all of those! Diverse gaming is awesome, but it's hard to find other people who've played all the same games as me, so good on you for playing most of them… :P
Disclaimer: Refer to chapter one
Found
Sheba groaned as she stirred from her unconsciousness. She wasn't in any sort of pain, but her body ached as if she'd been exercising all day. Her eyes remained shut as she tried to catch a few more minutes of sleep. It took her a moment to remember what happened, but she remained calm, keeping her eyes shut. The smell of the ocean and the sound of squawking gulls above confirmed that she was still out at sea. Perhaps falling over the edge of Gaia Falls had been a dream. Maybe she'd fallen out of the crow's nest when the boat rocked and gotten knocked unconscious. That would explain her body aches. She smiled, happy to know that it was all just a nightmare.
However, she noticed something odd that forced her to open her eyes. The ground was much too soft to be the wooden deck, but a bit grainy to be her bed on the ship. Sheba slowly opened her eyes to look at her surroundings, and gasped in shock. The ship, not to mention any of the other crewmembers, was nowhere to be seen, and she was lying on a beach hidden away in some sort of roofless cave.
She went to stand, but another oddity forced her gaze towards her hands and feet. Both sets of limbs were bound together by a few algae-covered ropes. As much as the young Jupiter adept squirmed to get her hands free, the ropes were tied much too tightly to have a chance at escape. Having only Jupiter djinn set to her, she could not cast Slash, and so the only way to escape would be to find something sharp enough to cut her bonds with.
The sound of a quiet, high-pitched muttering stole her attention though. Sheba stole a glance to her right to see a couple of small, hooded creatures conversing amongst themselves while staring at her. Had they done this to her? Perhaps they'd just happened to stumble upon her now while her true captives were off somewhere else. It never hurt to try…
"Hello?" she called, hoping they might understand her. "Um, can you help me?"
The creatures jumped at the sound of her voice and quickly scurried out of sight.
"No, wait! Please, I just want to know what's going on!"
There came no response, and she sat alone for a few minutes before sighing and collapsing onto her back. Oh, this was hopeless! She had no idea where she was, where anyone else was, or why she was there. Her body ached, she was tied up, and worse, she just realized that she and Ivan actually had told each other how they felt. As embarrassing as it was to know that he knew she liked him, she had also discovered that he felt the same way about her! If she knew where he was, or if he was even alive, everything would be great right now.
She quickly jumped back into a sitting position as the ground beneath her shook. Something big was near, for the ground shook periodically in a rhythm that indicated the steps of a large being. Great, as if things weren't bad enough already…
A deafening roar shook the immediate area, and she cringed as she looked in the direction of the sound. Dozens more of those little creatures came running from there; were they being pursued by some monster? No, it looked as though they were running at her… Oh gods, they are running at her!
The little creatures lifted her up and presented her like she was some sort of meal. Well, considering the roar of that creature, perhaps she was intended to be a sacrifice of some sort… Oh, I never thought it would end this way. A few moments later, a large green creature stomped its way around the corner of the opening. It's hungry gaze landed on her as it roared again and quickened its pace towards her. Helpless to do anything, Sheba went with her last resort.
She screamed as loudly as she could.
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"It must have landed around here somewhere…" Melia thought aloud to herself.
"My lady, if I may ask, why hold such interest in a common meteor?" asked the pilot.
"I do not know exactly, but this one was particularly interesting in its size. I have never seen a meteor to be so large in all my years of being here."
The pilot shrugged and continued flying the small aircraft over the western region of Eryth Sea. The other night, Melia had been peacefully observing the beautiful meteor shower over the glowing sea from Syrath Lighthouse. Though meteor showers are rather common to this region of the world, she'd never once seen a meteor as large as the one that fell last night! Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the Bionis' head was no longer any higher up than any other parts of the land, but wouldn't that only make the meteorites smaller? Either way, it was likely that it had simply crashed into the sea, only to wind up somewhere in Makna Forest, and it was probably just a very large rock.
The sound of a piercing scream split the air as the aircraft flew over the Hode Refuge. Before Melia even had to tell him what to do, the pilot was quick to descend the ship towards the beach on the island. The hodes hadn't been causing as much trouble as of late, but they still warranted some watching. Once landed, the two of them jumped out of the ship and ran into the island, only to be met with the sight of a small, blonde girl being offered up as a meal to a Pulse Orluga.
Without thinking, Melia quickly unleashed a wind attack at the creatures before realizing that she might hurt her target. However, she watched as the girl seemed unfazed by the attack that sent the hodes and orluga flying. The pilot ran in, jabbing at the creatures with his spear as she aimed – more carefully – some attacks away from the girl. Eventually, the creatures that survived dispersed, and Melia was quick to unbind the girl.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Y-yes, I would've helped you if my hands weren't tied."
"Do not trouble yourself. We were not doing anything of particular importance. What is your name?"
"Oh, I'm Sheba."
"Sheba, it is my pleasure. I am Melia Antiqua, Empress of Alcamoth."
"E-empress?" squeaked Sheba before turning pale and bowing down. "Omigosh! F-forgive me, your highness! I had no idea!"
Melia chuckled a bit. This was more or less the response she had expected from the girl. "Your apologies are not necessary, Sheba. If I am being honest, I do not mind being spoken to in an informal manner. I grew quite accustomed to such means of communication during my travels."
Sheba shakily rose to her feet and gave Melia a warm smile. Now that Melia could see the girl standing, she had the chance to observe her. Her clothing seemed rather peasant-like, but had somewhat of a regal bearing to it. She had brown boots and a white dress-like tunic, with a purple scarf that doubled as a cape. Sheba's hair was oddly round, but her piercing green eyes made up for the oddity. Overall, she looked like she could have been from Colony 6.
"What's Colony 6?" she asked, catching Melia off-guard.
"How did- I did not say anything of the place!" Melia responded in a confused manner.
"Oh gosh, I'm really sorry," Sheba apologized, though Melia still had no clue what she was talking about or why she'd somehow brought that up. "I, um, probably shouldn't have voiced that out loud…"
"Well, perhaps it was only a strange coincidence. After all, it isn't like you could have-"
"Read your mind?" Sheba cut her off. "Um, you probably wouldn't believe it if I told you that I could. In fact, I can tell right now that you don't believe me… Hey, I am not crazy! You may be an empress, but that doesn't make it any less rude to think that about me! …I just told you how I could tell what you were thinking!"
Melia stood with her mouth slightly agape as if she was going to say something, but no words came out. She hadn't said one word, and yet Sheba had responded to every thought that had crossed her mind as if she were speaking it out loud. It couldn't be possible to read someone's mind, no power like that existed, did it? Was this girl some sort of ether-bender as well?
"This power does so exist! I don't know what this ether is, but all I'm doing is tapping into my psynergy. Ivan can do it as well."
So others could do it as well? That was rather… unnerving. "Um, Sheba, if you do not mind, perhaps you could stay out of my thoughts…" That sounded just as strange as it had in her head.
"Oh, sorry! I forget sometimes that people don't like when we do that… I was actually just trying to find out where I am."
"You do not know? Did the hodes kidnap you in your sleep perchance?"
"What? No… er, maybe they did, I'm not really sure how I wound up here in the first place. The last thing I remember was the ship that my friends and I were on toppled over the edge of the world and, well, then I just woke up with my hands and feet tied up…"
Melia stood awkwardly silent for a moment. Fell over… the edge of the world? As far as she knew, there was no edge of the world! Even when Bionis and Mechonis stood tall, they stood on an endless waterscape that made up the world. And even if she fell over the edge, why would she suddenly be back on it?
"Er, Sheba? Where did you say you came from?"
"I didn't, but our ship crashed over the Great Western Sea. I… I don't know where I originally come from, but I was raised in Lalivero."
"Lal… Lalivero?"
"Yes, my adoptive father, Faran, says that I fell out of the sky one day, like a magical meteor. When he went to find out what it was, he discovered a baby, me, in the crash site of the meteor. Sounds weird, but I'm not really sure what else I can believe at this point."
After hearing that story, Melia felt a strange headache coming on. These things all seemed to make… too much sense! Sheba fell from some unknown world and landed in this 'Lalivero' where she was raised like a regular girl. Then suddenly she falls out of her current world, arriving in this one as a meteor, just like she had as a baby, and giving Melia a reason to have gone looking for the larger meteor, which actually turned out to be the girl standing in front of her!
"I… I think I need to process this some more," she said, rubbing her temples. "Would you like to come back to Alcamoth with us, Sheba? I can offer you some hospitality while we try to sort out… your situation."
"Um, well, if it's no problem with you, then I'll gladly come along."
Melia smiled slightly to her new companion. "Alright, follow me then. Our ship will take you back to the city."
"Ship? How far away is this place?"
"Nearly the other side of the sea. Why do you ask?"
"The other side of the sea?! Won't that take a long time to get to?!"
"Er… not particularly, no."
Sheba lost herself in thought, trying to imagine how it could take such a short time to cross an entire sea in a short time. Perhaps this Melia girl was accustomed to travelling across seas, so long journeys meant nothing to her. As they stepped out into the more open area, Sheba nearly fainted at what she saw. Up in the sky were not only clouds, but large floating islands in the air! After seeing many strange things on her journey across Weyard, she never thought that anything could surprise her, but was she ever wrong! Looking to the direction that Melia was heading, she tilted her head in confusion when she saw a man standing beside a strange metal… thing!
"What is that, empress?"
"Please, you may call me Melia. And that," she indicated by pointing to the vehicle, "is the ship we'll be using to get back."
Sheba looked at it again as if Melia were joking. The thing hardly looked like it was meant for sailing, and it wasn't even in the water! She was beginning to question if this girl was sane or not.
Once onboard the… 'ship', Sheba took her seat and was told to buckle in. An extendable strap beside her pulled over her lap and chest, clicking into a slot on the other side. How ingenious! It certainly made her feel safer.
"Everybody good?" asked the pilot, earning nods from both girls. "Then let's be off!"
Sheba tightly gripped the bars on either side of her as the craft rose and took off at a speed she hadn't thought possible. Wherever she was, it certainly wasn't Weyard…
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Dunban was out for his daily morning exercises. Colony 9 had become a rather bustling city, so he liked to get most of his activities done in the morning while people were still sleeping. On this particular morning, Fiora, who sometimes liked to come along, joined him. The two were pretty much finished, walking casually along the beach.
"You know, Fiora," started Dunban, "I still can't get over how successfully you recovered from getting your body back. Six months seems like no time at all to have a fully functioning body!"
"This again, Dunban?" she replied to her brother. "How long do you think it'll take you to get over it?"
"Heh," he chuckled, "probably forever. I almost lost you, Fiora. You have no idea what it was like to see you make it through all the hardships."
"I do though! You always say things like this and I always have to remind you of when you came back from the battle at Sword Valley!"
He sighed. They had had this conversation many times, and it always ended on the same note. "I suppose you're right. Still, I…"
"Dunban?" asked Fiora after he trailed off his sentence. He didn't seem to notice though, only staring straight ahead at something. She followed his gaze and gasped at what she saw. Without a word, the two of them quickly rushed over to the two figures lying in the sand a few metres ahead.
"They're alive," Dunban said, pressing his fingers to each person's neck to check for a pulse.
"Do you think they were attacked?" asked Fiora, checking for any signs of wounds.
"No, they seem relatively unharmed… It's strange; why would they be unconscious out here without any injuries? I can't imagine they decided to sleep out under the stars."
The boy with long brown hair began to stir, so the two of them stepped back to give him some room. They watched as he rubbed his eyes, and looked around groggily. Then, as if in realization of something, he shot up into a sitting position and shook the girl with reddish-brown hair beside him. It seemed he hadn't even noticed Dunban and Fiora watching him.
"Mm, Felix?" croaked the girl as she rubbed her eyes. "What's going on?"
"I'm not sure," he answered back. "We're not dead though, and I have no idea where we are…"
"Oh… where's everyone else?"
"I wish I knew. I literally woke up about ten seconds ago."
"Um, are you two okay?" Fiora asked.
Both of the strangers shot looks at her, apparently neither having realized that she or Dunban was there.
"Who are you?" the boy asked darkly. "And where are we?"
"Whoa, now, easy there," Dunban said, taking a step in front of Fiora. "We don't want any trouble; we just found you here now."
The boy still stayed on the defensive however. "That doesn't answer either of my questions."
"Felix, calm down," the girl said, gripping his shoulder.
"You're in Colony 9, which is on what used to be the Bionis' foot," Fiora answered for him.
"Why were you out here?" asked Dunban.
"I wish I knew," sighed the boy, easing the tension. "Sorry if I came off aggressive; I've been trained to keep my guard up in unknown situations."
"Understandable, given that you seem to be a warrior of sorts," Dunban shrugged, gesturing to the large broadsword resting beside him. "What are your names?"
"Felix," said the boy, getting to his feet and sliding the sword back into a scabbard on his waist.
"I'm his sister, Jenna," said the girl, also getting to her feet with the help of a staff.
"Well met, Felix and Jenna. I am Dunban and this is my sister, Fiora. You mentioned there were others with you."
"Yeah," said Jenna, "four other guys and two other girls. Have you seen anyone else lying around out here?"
"No," answered Fiora. "Your friends… they wouldn't have left you, would they?"
"I highly doubt it," said Felix. "We don't exactly know where we are, so it would've been best to stick together if they'd also wound up here."
"You've never heard of Colony 9?"
"No. We come from a village called Vale. I'll spare you the details for now, but I have a feeling that you won't know where we're from due to the… circumstances of our arrival."
Both pairs of siblings shrugged, none other than Felix quite understanding what he meant by that. They spent several more minutes asking questions back and forth, ending on Felix and Jenna actually taking notice of the great stone and metal structures that made up most of the colony. Jenna was flipping out over it, but Felix was rather neutral. Perhaps that was just his character.
"If you'd like," said Dunban, "you're welcome to stay at our home. It seems you need to set some things straight before you go searching for you friends."
"Thank you, Dunban," said Felix, "that's very kind of you. I'd also like to meet this Shulk you mentioned. You said he might be able to help us, correct?"
"Yes, though I can't guarantee it. He usually has some sort of solution to our issues, so I'd suggest we meet with him as soon as you're able."
"I can take you to him whenever," Fiora said happily. "He'll usually stop what he's doing to see me for a bit!"
Dunban chuckled a bit, shaking his head while muttering "hopeless."
"Heehee, you could learn something from Dunban, Felix," Jenna giggled.
"If it means approving of Garet, he'll have to work for it," Felix replied flatly.
The four of them made their way up to the Commercial District, since Dunban's house seemed to be the only one not located in the Residential District. Once they were comfortably settled around the kitchen table, they continued with some of the conversations they'd been having from earlier. Felix decided that he would wait to explain the meaning behind his words once they could all meet with Shulk. Their discussion went into the afternoon until a knock at the door stole Fiora's attention as she went to answer it.
"Hey, Fiora, I- oops, I didn't realize you had company."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Sharla. It looks like you've got some yourself. What's up?"
"Well, other than travelling back and forth between colonies all morning because of that stupid Reyn, I helped these two out. They say they're not from around here, but I figured it'd be best if I took them to see Shulk."
"That's funny, Dunban and I met these two this morning and we were gonna take them to Shulk too! We found them unconscious by the beach this morning, and we helped them out as much as we could."
"That sounds just like what happened with these two. You don't think… Hey, guys! Are these some of the people you've been looking for?"
Fiora backed up to let the two strangers poke their heads in through the doorway. They certainly made a colourful bunch of people, what with the Reyn lookalike and the… blue-haired girl…
"Jenna! Felix!" both of them cried as they saw the two sitting at the table.
Said siblings were quick to jump at the sounds of their voices and a happy reunion soon ensued. The introductions played out rather smoothly and everyone seemed in higher spirits. Sharla and Fiora chuckled a bit watching Felix grumble over Jenna and Garet kissing.
"Well, now that we've established that all of us were going to the same place," Dunban said once things settled down a bit, "why don't we head over to Shulk's place now?"
All of the company nodded in agreement, and the seven of them made their way to their new destination.
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"Why… why is this here again?! It's been nearly a year since I got rid of it! I thought that when I made that final decree it was supposed to disappear forever!"
Shulk sat in his lab, pacing back and forth while he stared at the newest addition to his inventions: The True Monado. In truth, it had appeared nearly a month ago, but he'd hidden it away to keep the others from asking questions. It was supposed to disappear when he made his sole godly wish. Alvis even told him that they would see a brighter future, set by those who made it themselves, so why had the Monado returned?!
It was a hopeless question though. Shulk had to keep it a secret so that the others didn't think he'd kept it for selfish reasons; meaning that he couldn't ask anyone else why it may have returned. If Alvis still existed somewhere, then he would have the answer for him, but the world was returned to its original state, thus making Alvis no more than a simple computer program floating in space somewhere. The fact that the Monado even existed anymore was beyond comprehension! If Alvis was Monado, wouldn't that make the sword non-existent in the original world?
Even for a genius engineer, these ponderings were starting to hurt Shulk's head. He had enough to worry about in his own life anyway, being nineteen and all. People often forgot that he was still a teenager, given his lifestyle and dedication to the defense force. He and Reyn were probably the youngest people affiliated with it, in truth.
The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs caught Shulk's attention, so he quickly threw a sheet over the Monado and stashed it in the corner amongst his other inventions. People were respectful enough to leave his things alone until he was finished tinkering with them. A knock on the door and the sound of many voices was what he heard as he pretended to go back to working something at his desk.
"Come in!" he called.
The door opened, and he looked up to see Dunban, Fiora, and Sharla walk in with four other strangers. A rattling from the covered Monado caused him to hold his breath for a moment, but he breathed out when it subsided near-instantaneously.
"Shulk, I hope you don't mind, we brought some guests!" said Fiora, taking a seat beside him.
"Oh, uh, not at all," he said standing up to introduce himself. "I'm Shulk."
The four adepts introduced themselves, each shaking his hand as they did so. Oddly enough, he was reminded of each of his own friends when seeing these others. Though they didn't seem like it on the outside, he felt like Mia and Sharla were somewhat similar, as were Jenna and Fiora. Dunban and Felix actually shared a striking resemblance, though Felix was clearly about his age, not Dunban's. He had to stifle a chuckle as he shook Garet's hand. It was almost like being introduced to his own best friend!
"So, I assume you all came here for a reason," Shulk said casually. "What can I do for you?"
"Well," said Jenna, "we were hoping you might be able to help us locate our other friends… and if you knew a way for all of us to get home…"
"Er, you need to… get home?"
"Felix," Dunban interrupted, "I think now may be the best time for you to share what you meant earlier."
The Venus adept nodded and began his explanation. "Well, as I'm sure we've all figured out by now, none of us come from the same place, which by that I mean we may not even be of the same worlds."
A few murmurs went around, and Shulk once again eyed the Monado nervously, somehow linking its reappearance to this strange occurrence.
"You've spoken of your world being made of the remains of some titans or something," Felix continued, "and that you, along with some others, had to travel across these titans to stop the recreation of everything or something, correct? Well, our world has never heard of any such tales, giving me the impression that we do not come from the same places. Your world seems to be an endless one, but ours was actually shrinking, dying due to the lack of life energy."
"During our own adventure, our group of eight had to travel across our world, Weyard, to do somewhat the opposite of your task, in that we had to release alchemy upon the world, bringing it back to life. From what I've heard, our world runs on the power of alchemy and psynergy, while yours is made up of some sort of power called ether. Regardless, these things seem parallel enough."
"Anyway, as we were heading home from the end of our journey, a companion of ours, Isaac, fell into a trance-like dream state. When he woke up, he spoke of something about connected worlds, but none of us knew what he meant at the time. A strange current suddenly pulled our ship over the edge of our world, and now I believe that we ended up in yours instead of dying because of something that had to do with what Isaac saw. I'm not exactly sure why we were all separated, but I don't exactly know how world-jumping works."
Everyone took a while to process Felix's theory. Other than the parts that he himself didn't know about, such as Isaac's dream, it seemed as though everything in his hypothesis made sense. Though it was hard for some of the Bionis residents to understand how one could be pulled over the edge of the world, they had to agree that these four had to have come here by some rather unusual circumstances.
"I'm… I'm a little flustered right now," Shulk answered truthfully. "I mean, if what you're saying is true, this might be more than I'm capable of handling. Trying to find your friends seems simple enough, but the thought of world-jumping is… well, I can't really say absurd, but I don't know what else to say it is!"
"It may seem weird, but it's the only solution I could come up with," said Felix.
"Oi, Shulk, you in?!" a voice from the hallway shouted, followed by some loud stomps down the stairs.
"And now's my chance to beat the hell out of him!" Sharla said maniacally, heading into the hallway.
The sounds of shouting and some rather unpleasant hits followed once she'd disappeared through the doorway. After about five minutes of solid beatings, all was silent. Sharla walked back in with a very bruised Reyn in tow.
"Whoa, Dunban," Reyn exclaimed, ignoring his injuries and looking at all the strangers in the room, "there's two o' you! Oi, waitaminnit! There's two o' me too! Where'd you guys find all these lookalikes?!"
"Yep, he's definitely Garet's doppelganger," Jenna giggled to Mia.
"Oh, by the way, I brought a stranger too! Hope you don't mind a crowded lab, Shulk."
All of the Weyardians gasped as their other leader walked in, grinning as he noticed them.
Unfortunately, the moment didn't last long as the Monado whirred into action and sent out some electrical currents that knocked out both Isaac and Shulk…
I wanted to make this longer, but I figured that this was probably the best place to stop. Initially, I was going to have everyone get knocked out at the end, but I figured that it would be a little more suspenseful if it were just those two. Either way, it would've made sense, but you won't understand until the story progresses some more :)
Anyway, I know there's only a few people reading this, but I'd be super grateful if you guys could review! It doesn't take too much time or effort to leave a thought, so please, if you can spare your opinion on a chapter or the story as a whole, that'd be great!
So, yeah, review and check out my soundcloud!
-GengaJupite