Chapter 3

The mechon lands on the plateau and transforms. It's a face mechon, but shorter and considerably stockier than metal face with a rust like colouration as opposed to Metal Face's dark tones. It's carrying an enormous hammer, and unlike Metal Face its mouth isn't wired shut.

"That's not Metal Face."

"It's the one that attacked colony 6."

The mechon starts to talk.

"So you're the ones who sent Metal Face off with his tail between his legs. Can't say you're much to look at Monado boy, but considering Metal Face is still getting repaired I guess looks can be deceiving."

"Who are you?"

"The names Xord, and you'll find unlike Metal Face I'm no coward…"

"You'll pay for what you did to colony 6!"

"I think you'll find the place has got a well overdue makeover. Hard work mind; hard enough to work up an appetite; and the five of you look like a proper smorgasbord from where I'm standing."

Xord readies his hammer and battle commences.

"Hate to break it to you Monado boy, but you ain't got a thing I'm even gonna notice!"

Xord proves just as resistant to the Monado as Metal Face; but Shulk, Reyn and Fiora notices he is fortunately considerably slower.

"How the hell do we hurt him?"

"Just…keep trying! We've got a speed advantage so just keep trying different parts of him; try to find a weak spot or something."

He party keep trying to strike different parts of Xord; his amour doesn't seem to have any weak spots though.

"Nice try pipsqueaks; I take it back what I said about not noticing; that actually tickles!"

The fight continues, with Xord proving even sturdier than Metal Face. Despite his lack of speed he's completely unrelenting, and the party find continuing to dodge Xord's lethal hammer swings increasingly tiring.

"…this…isn't good…"

"Got an idea Shulk…don't waste your energy with the enchant function. The Monado doesn't seem to work on him right now…use the speed function…"

"That won't help us damage him Fiora…"

"It'll keep us going…we just need to stay ahead of him…I've got a hunch that if we can draw out the fight…something'll change…"

Shulk activates the speed function. From their perspective Xord becomes slower, giving them some breathing room.

"huff.…So what's the plan?"

"I'll be honest with you Shulk…huff…it's more of a gamble…but look at the light on his body…huff…is it just me or does it seem to get brighter when we attack him?"

"Guess now that we're faster we can afford to take a few chances. You two stay back and watch, see what happens."

Shulk and Reyn use their speed boost to make several attacks on Xord. Fiora and Sharla observe the effects.

"There's definitely something happening…he seems to get a bit brighter when you hit him Reyn, and even more so when Shulk does."

"Is it some kind of barrier? Maybe we can overload it if we synchronise our attacks."

"The speed boost's wearing off so if we're gonna do something; we need to do it now."

"Any luck with the visions Shulk?"

"…Yes! I can make him leave an opening with his next swing!"

Shulk moves into Xord's strike range. Xord attempts to land a downward swing on him, but accidently puts too much force behind the strike. Shulk's already clear of the impact point before the hammer has even finished descending. The hammer strikes the ground with enough force to embed itself in the rock.

"…Now!"

On Fiora's mark they synchronise their attacks. Shulk lands a slash on Xord's body; Reyn follows up with a thrust from his gun lance at the same point; Fiora lands a jumping kick on the back of the gun lance, adding power to the strike; and then Sharla lands a shot in the same space. The light on Xords body flares even more brightly than before and the ether round leaves a noticeable mark on his armour, and once the light settles it's slightly dimmer than it was before as well.

"Is that all you got? Well, as fun as it's been I haven't got all day so the gloves are just gonna have to come off now!"

Xord pulls the hammer out of the ground with as much force as he can muster. In the process he sends a cascade of rocks flying in all directions. Fiora, Reyn and Shulk only just manage to throw themselves clear. Visions suddenly start appearing before Shulk again, but in a similar manner to how they occurred during the fight with Metal Face, and to an even greater extreme. Colour starts to drain away from the world, and time itself seems to slow as the visions race by, although unlike last time, they're inconsistent. One moment he sees Reyn being hurled from the plateau, the next he sees Xord stamp on Sharla, but none of the visions show them all surviving.

("Dammit! This isn't happening! I just need more power…so please…help me…give me what I need. I'm not going to let any of them die…no matter what it takes!")

Suddenly time grinds almost to halt. The symbol on the monado changes again and Shulk hears a voice.

"Do you wish for power? Is your desire the hard forged power of yourself, or to be gifted with the unsealed power of the monado?"

"Whichever will be enough to save them!"

"Not the response I was expecting, but a revealing one none the less. You clearly desire power for a particular purpose rather than for its own sake. I suppose forcing your hand right now would be a distinctly low thing to do and I want any choices you make in this matter to be by your own free will. Very well, consider this a goodwill gesture, but we will meet again, and I will require a decision next time. Just bear in mind that everything has price when the time comes."

The symbol on the Monado then vanishes, and the whole glass section starts to glow brightly. The blade separates further than usual and extends somewhat, and the light becomes dazzlingly intense. Shulk himself starts to emit a blue aura, and his eyes glow a brighter blue than ever before. Shulk feels like he has fire flowing through his veins, and an overwhelming urge to annihilate anything that might threaten his friends.

"So tell me Xord; do mechon feel pain?"

The light of Monado extends further than before. Shulk unleashes a downward strike against Xord. It connects with the top of his head and continues all the way down to the ground, cutting into the rock. Xord recoils, his outer amour layer melted in vertical line from the strike.

"Now that actually hurt. Sounds like Metal Face might've been right about you. Still, it's not like something as minor as that's gonna stop me so I'd better take you out the game right now."

Xord shifts his weight and a loud crack comes from the rock floor.

"…Bugger…"

The part of the plateau where the Monado connected collapses under Xord's weight, sending him crashing into the valley. Shulk's blue aura disappears and the Monado deactivates. A moment later Shulk keels over. Reyn gets to him first.

"Shulk! What's wrong? Shulk! Please, wake up man!

Shulk's out cold and unresponsive. Sharla takes a closer look at him.

"He's under pretty deep, but he's breathing and his pulse is strong, if a little fast. I can't see any obvious physical trauma related injuries so we should be able to move him."

A moment later they hear some noise from the valley.

"Right you little bastards, if you think I'm done you've got another thing coming!...Knackers, fine bloody time for me flight unit to pack in. Go on then, leg it! I'll be seeing you all later…hopefully for dinner…"

Reyn picks Shulk up and the party head back to the camp. He can't help but notice Juju seems to be in a bit of shock.

"….."

"Are you okay Juju?"

"…This is my fault isn't it?"

"…No…I think we would've run into Xord at some point anyway…in fact this might've worked out for the best. At least this way we ended up having Sharla with us; if I'd just been me, Reyn and Shulk I don't think we'd have known what to do."

"Yeah…you're probably right Fiora. Shulk'd probably have pulled that stunt when came across a face mechon anyway."

"I just hope he's gonna be okay."

"He's in good hands so don't worry…but why'd you have to run off?"

"I heard you talking about evacuating the camp."

"I guess you didn't hear the whole conversation Juju. We're not abandoning the people we left at colony 6. We're trying to come up with a rescue plan but we know there's a chance we'd alert the mechon to the camp in the process so we figured we'd better evacuate the camp to a safer place at the same time."

"...I'm…sorry…I should've known…"

"Well I'm not gonna criticise you for jumping the gun; I'd be a hypocrite if I tried. When I was your age I used to do it all the time; got me in a whole heap of trouble as well. Shulk and Fiora usually managed to bail me out, but there was this one time when I screwed up so badly Dunban had to come and rescue me…but I won't go into detail since it was really, really embarrassing."

Fiora manages to make a smile break through her anxious expression.

"Was that the time with the bunnits?"

"Yes it was…and please don't say any more."

"Fair enough Reyn."

The party make a short and uneventful journey back to the camp. By the time they get there Shulk's not showing any signs of improvement, and Fiora's poker face is slipping.

"How's he doing?"

"I don't think anything's changed Sharla. His breathing's still strong, but his heart's still going some; I don't even need to take a pulse properly to feel it."

"Shulk, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me. No response, he's still out of it."

"How can we help him?"

"I'm not sure. He really needs checking over with some better facilities than these so…"

"Dickson could help! I'll get in contact with him right now!"

Fiora opens a coms link to Dunban.

"Hello Fiora, is something…"

"It's Shulk! We need some help ASAP! He collapsed! The Monado..."

"Whoa, slow down! One thing at a time!"

Fiora composes herself and explains what happened.

"Oh no…we'll get there as soon as we can. Dickson's got the transports almost in complete working order so with any luck he'll be able to jury rig one enough to make the trip. Thanks for calling me Fiora, and hang in there."

The call ends.

"Any joy?"

"Dunban reckons they'll be able to make their way here soon. Any ideas on what's wrong with him?"

"Right now I'm not 100% sure but…he performed a huge ether release with the Monado. There's a pretty good chance it's interfered with his body's ether levels and that could well be what's knocked him out. Problem is the equipment I've got is designed for more conventional types of injury since I'm trained as a field medic. Ether imbalance is normally only caused by very specific illnesses and poisoning; actually diagnosing it requires particular tests which I just can't do with what I've got here, and treating it requires very specific concentrations of opposed types of ether. Get it wrong and you make the problem worse."

"Is there anything we can do in the meantime to help him?"

"If it is ether imbalance then not an awful lot I'm afraid. I'll keep examining him for other possibilities though, and if he has any secondary injuries these will need attention. Is there anything I should know about his medical history?"

"Nothing that I'm aware of I'm afraid…no wait a minute, something about this rings a bell. I think something similar to this happened when he was very young; Dickson might be able to tell you more. Other than that the injuries to his hands are something he picked up at the colony 9 assault; he tore them open when he was fighting Metal Face and they've not really had chance to heal properly."

"That's odd; he's still holding the Monado, his hands must've gone into spasm when he lost consciousness. Reyn, Fiora, could you help me get his hands open, they're shut really tight."

"Okay then…bloody hell! What's with this strength? Even Vangarre doesn't grip like this."

"Let me try something."

Fiora presses her thumb into part of Shulk's wrist and his grip relaxes, freeing the Monado.

"Nice one, what'd you do?"

"A self-defence trick Dunban taught me when I was little. Push your thumb into the nerve and the grip weakens."

"Let's take a proper look...hmm, it doesn't look like he's done himself too much damage but he should have got this treated properly back at colony 9. I'll get these cleaned and dressed properly."

Meanwhile inside Shulk's head…

Shulk finds himself in a place he distantly remembers. The last time he was here he was a small child. Colour seems to be missing from the world, but he's pretty sure he can see snow and ice, and a large spire like structure which he feels drawn to. He heads for the structure and finds an entrance simply opens for him and he heads inside. Within the structure he finds the monado on a pedestal of sorts, but as he heads towards it his foot catches something. He looks down to see the body of a small boy; on closer inspection he realises the body is actually his, although as a child.

"This must be where we found the monado, but why am I dead? I was the only survivor; come to think of it why am I the only one here?"

Shulk hears a voice identical to his own.

"Apologies for this somewhat morbid scene, necessity dictated I gauge your reaction."

"Who are you, and why do have my voice?"

"Ah, the reaction I was hoping for; you seek answers."

"Wouldn't anyone?"

"You'd be surprised how many people would simply lose their cool and act irrationally confronted with something similar to this. We can't talk here for long I'm afraid and it'll take too long to explain what this place is so I'll get to the point. You're currently unconscious due to ether imbalance, but it won't take long for you to recover."

"That must be from where I managed to get something extra out of the monado."

"Yes, and I'm sure you remember hearing a voice then as well. That was the will of the monado."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm an aspect of the monado, but also an aspect of you."

"That doesn't make sense."

"We're pushed for time so you'll just have to trust me for now. You partially unsealed the monado for a moment, but the extra power you drew during this wasn't properly controlled and injured you. Next time you won't get off as lightly, so you'll need to find a way of making the release more controlled. The monado responds to a strong will, and against expectations you've already overpowered its first seal, but it still won't cooperate entirely without fulfilling certain requirements. A limited form of release should be possible without serious side effects by either submitting to the monado or subjugating it, although a true release won't be possible until the seals have actually been removed."

"You said something about submitting to the monado…"

"…damn…we're running out of time, I can feel it stirring. Listen, hopefully you won't have to make that decision, and if you properly unseal the monado it ceases to be an issue, but if you find yourself forced to make a choice just remember, nothing is free. Subjugating the monado will be very difficult, but submission will be costly…"

"…Give it back…"

"What was that?"

"It's found you. You need to wake up as soon as you can."

"…Give it back…It doesn't belong to you…Give back what you stole!"

Shulk can see another figure approaching him. This figure looks like him, but its hair is slightly longer, covering its eyes. The figure is also naked, and Shulk notices its skin's burned, covered with a pattern reminiscent of the scars on Dunban's arm.

"Who is that, and why does he look like me?"

"No matter what, remember, that is not you. You're not ready to face him Shulk, you need to run now."

"Wait a second, where am I supposed to run? I don't even know what this place is!"

"Away from him! Just keep away until you wake up!"

"You're going to pay…you're nothing but a lie…you're not even Shulk, you worthless fake!"

The figure starts to move more quickly.

"What are you waiting for! Run, now! Or you'll find out there are worse things than dying!"

Shulk starts to run. The wall of structure opens to allow him to escape and closes after him, but figure tears through the wall.

"I own this place…I own you!"

Shulk continues to run, pleased to find he can outpace the being perusing him. He keeps running for a while and looks back to see he's lost his pursuer.

"Lost him…okay, now I need to wake up…"

"Keep moving! That thing has a degree of control over this place! If you stay still…"

"…You're mine…"

The figure emerges from the snow a few meters to the side of Shulk and lunges at him. Shulk just manages to dodge, but gets at look at its eyes, or rather the absence of them.

"Ahhhh! What the hell is this thing!"

"What am I? I'm the truth. I'm…inevitability."

Shulk falls backwards, only now he's back at colony 9, but the world is still black and white. He looks around and he can see what looks like the assault, but time seems to have stopped, and events have unfolded differently. He can see himself hanging in the air, having jumped over the railings above the water to escape metal face. Reyn's underneath Metal Face's foot, his exposed ribs making it clear he isn't alive. Dunban's collapsed in a pool of his own blood with a huge puncture wound to his neck, dead as well. The mobile artillery is ablaze, most likely with Fiora trapped inside.

"What…this didn't happen!"

"Thanks to your meddling things turned out quite differently. If you'd just been smart enough to follow your instincts and run back then this how it would have turned out. Now of course they're all alive, and very much obstacles to what I want, and for that…I'll make you watch."

The figure advances on a prone Shulk, but he suddenly hears Sharla's voice.

"…something's not right…risky, but it'll work…okay then, if you both agree, we do it…"

Shulk feels a surge of adrenaline rush through his body and he's able to move. The figure tries to grab him, but only manages to grasp his shoulder, and Shulk shakes him off. Colour starts to return to the world, but it also starts to blur.

"So it was her interference this time...she'll be the first then…enjoy what little time you've got left…you lie."

Shulk regains consciousness.

"You did it Sharla, he's waking up!"

"He's not out of the woods yet; I forced him to wake up but the imbalance still needs treating."

"Shulk my man, welcome back!"

"Ohhh…Reyn…Fiora…Sharla…you're all here."

"Of course we are…you don't think he's forgotten?"

"He might be missing the end of our encounter with Xord so…"

"No, it's okay, I remember all of that…just a really horrible nightmare while I was under…I feel like I've just swam a mile…"

"Don't try to move Shulk, you're suffering from an ether imbalance and it might be affecting your muscles; too much strain could do you damage at the moment."

"Don't worry, you're going to be okay; I've called Dunban, and he's on his way with Dickson so we should be able to treat you properly soon."

"Dunban? I'll be glad to see him, make sure he's okay."

"What's the matter Shulk?"

"Sorry…it's that nightmare, it was just so real; it was more like some sort of hallucination."

"Well don't worry; I was speaking to him over the coms just a few minutes ago."

"You look dreadful, was it anything like what happened at Tephra Cave?"

"Worse…"

"I thought you were just suffering a bit of discomfort from the imbalance. Does anywhere hurt at the moment?"

"Just a dull ache through all my muscles and strong light headedness…no wait, there is something else; some altered sensation in my shoulder."

"I looked you over a little earlier and didn't see anything so perhaps you've hurt your neck…no wait a minute, how did I miss that? You've got a burn on your shoulder."

"Yeah, I can see it now…that's really weird; it looks a little bit like a handprint."

Shulk goes very pale at this.

"You alright Shulk?"

"No…I…that can't be."

Shulk starts to turn green.

"Get a bucket!"

Reyn gets there just in time as Shulk throws up.

"Dammit! I'm sorry Shulk, I shouldn't have forced you to wake up; you need to rest until you're cured. Here, I've got some sedatives that might help…"

"Please don't! Give me something to stay awake."

"Something's…really wrong here. Until we get this sorted we're going to need to keep him under constant observation. If the imbalance is causing nightmares that severe there's a chance he'll start hallucinating while he's conscious."

"You're gonna be okay Shulk, we're here for you."

"If you don't mind me asking; what did you see?"

"I'm not sure how to put this...I think the monado tried to communicate with me while I was under. The experience wasn't like a dream, it felt just like the visions before, but I saw pieces of the past rather than the future. It was trying to tell me something important but we were interrupted…I don't know what the hell that thing was, I just hope it doesn't exist in the flesh."

"Something interrupted your vision?"

"It…took control of what I was seeing, and then it tried to grab me. It managed to catch my shoulder just before I woke up, and I could still feel it afterwards."

"…a handprint shaped burn."

"It could just be coincidence; or it might be the vision responded to external stimuli."

"I wonder what could've caused a burn like that in the first place then?"

Fiora suddenly turns pale.

"No…it can't happen again. Not you as well, please."

"Fiora, what's wrong?"

"It's got the same pattern to it as the burns on Dunban's arm."

"So you think the Monado caused this?"

"Actually that would make sense, and it ties in with something from the vision. It warned me that next time I released the Monado like that I'd need to have it properly controlled, or the consequences wouldn't be good."

"Shulk, you can't do that again. You'll end up like Dunban."

"I think I'll be okay using it the same way as I did before we fought Xord. It explicitly mentioned something about me overpowering one of the seals, so I guess…"

"Promise me Shulk."

"Fiora?"

"Promise me you won't try to perform a release with it again."

"It said something about there being a way of controlling it so hopefully I'll be able to figure something out, and on top of that it was trying to tell me there was a way of actually unsealing it properly."

"Shulk…"

"Okay, I promise (…as long as we don't end up in that sort of situation again. If things are looking dire then it'll be a risk worth taking.)"

Back at colony 9 Dunban and Dickson are having a little chat at the weapons lab.

"Are you absolutely sure you're ready for this Dunban?"

"Definitely; I feel better than I did before we were attacked now, and we'd have managed back then if it'd just been bog standard mechon."

"Okay then…to be honest I'm glad you're coming with me. I think I might finally be losing my touch."

"What makes you say that?"

"I should've been there during the attack. I was at a meeting with the brass when the attack started and they ordered me to stay and cover their backsides. I should've told those cowards where they could stick it and got myself into the fray; and I should've known those kids would've tried to do something instead of just running for the shelter."

"Well you won't have to worry about that happening again Dickson."

Dunban flashes the new insignia on the side of his jacket.

"So they finally had to accept reality; that was a long time coming…General Dunban."

"They're still expecting me to be a non-combatant mind. As soon as I've officially stamped the authorisation for our little trip I'm handing in my resignation…"

"That won't be necessary."

A wheelchair bound and heavily bandaged Vangarre interrupts the conversation.

"As a colonel I can take command of the defence force in your absence so don't worry about it. Anybody who's got a problem with that is gonna find out the hard way I can get a pretty decent top speed out of this thing."

"How's the prognosis regarding your injuries?"

"Aside from a bit of weight gain thanks to all the metalwork in my bones I'm looking at a full recovery."

"How on bionis did you recover so quickly? It wasn't that long ago you were in the ICU."

"We've got some bloody good medics in the force; hell, they put you back together again after sword valley; and it turns out Mefimefi is a bit of an artiste with healing ether on top. Look, don't worry yourself about all the official channels garbage; the rest of the brass know if they twist their faces about what you're doing and it goes public they'll get lynched. Word's gotten round now about what you and those kids managed to pull off and if they need your help nobody's gonna object to you rushing over to them."

"Well that saves us some time. How's the transport situation Dickson?"

"Just need a fresh load of fuel and we're good to go, and the gears already on board."

"I had a quick word with the maintenance lads on the way here and they're pretty sure you've got everything that needed fixing patched up to point where they can handle the rest, so there's nothing else here to hold you two back."

There's a shout from outside.

"All fuelled up!"

"Well then, we'd better make our move. Fiora sounded frantic so I'm pretty anxious as to how they'll all be doing; especially Shulk."

"See you two later then. I'd better go and address the force. I'll bet while I've been out of it Kantz will have gone easy on them, and we can't have them turning into a pack of lily livered spineless chickens; especially now we know the mechon are back."

Dunban and Dickson make their way to an air transport while Vangarre starts to make rounds of the fortress.

"Right then you 'orrible lot! I hope you haven't been slacking while I've been out of it!"

"No sir!"

"Oh really? I'm not too sure I believe you, so we're gonna have a little test. We're all gonna do a lap of the colony, but I'm gonna be chasing you; so you'd better give it some boot leather or you're gonna pick up a few tyre tracks!"

The unfortunate group of soldiers set off at brisk pace; the threat of being run over by Vangarre proving quite a powerful incentive to keep up their speed.

Meanwhile somewhere on Bionis…

"This most certainly wasn't in the projections."

"I don't think we should be too surprised though. Thanks to the deviations from the scenario he has more to lose, and as a consequence he's in a more unstable mental state."

"Which unfortunately isn't as in our favour as we might have expected. It's worked both ways now; we never expected him to find the will to perform a partial unsealing."

"It might place him in a position of strength when the time comes, but it could just as easily work the other way. The decision is his now, and it would be best if it were a free choice; if his hand is forced and he realises he's being played he'll have a means of resisting."

"That said we may have inadvertently created a contingency."

"I was under the impression that particular plan had been a complete failure; now that its remains have surfaced it might yet serve a purpose."

"Nice to discover one my oldest existing puppets can become useful once again. Whatever his intentions it'll turn out the same as always as far as he's concerned; he's so much a slave to his instincts that I can make him dance to my tune without him even realising."

"I suppose he provides an island of predictability in a sea of chaos."

"I think you're exaggerating somewhat; we might have some degree of unwelcome volatility in our primary charge but outside of that the scenario is playing out mostly as expected; and it would also appear we'll soon have the means to directly apply stabilising factors to the heart of the situation."