Each chapter of this story is based off of a song from the Xenoblade series, is an effort to mimic the Hifuu Club Albums. So its recommended to give each song a listen to with the relevant chapter.
The Beginning of Our Memory
~ Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country
For as long as there had been humans, there had been that search for eternity. Elixirs of immortality. Works guarded against time. Games to cheat death. All from a fear of the End.
Once someone had said that to be immortal would be to exist in a state where the boundary between life and death vanished. A step in the living world and a step in the Netherworld, alive and dead at the same time. The one who had said that had been excited by the prospect at the time, she remembered.
A world of eternity was a world where life and death held no meaning.
A great castle floated above the sea of such a world. It resembled the ancient castles of a country now lost twice to the passage of time. Agnus Castle was bright red and white, a far cry from its storm-ravaged black and bronze counterpart across the eternal world. Nonetheless it was home to equal brutality.
The sea, usually filled with choppy waves, was still as glass this night. The twinkling stars above were nearly reflected perfectly by the sea below. On one of the many beaches that dotted the sea, where the surf met the sand sat what looked like a woman. Her blonde hair so long it pooled on the sand.
"Here you are! I've been looking for you!"
Another woman sat down next to the first. Unlike the first, who dressed in an elegant violet dress, she wore the practical uniform of a soldier, dark pants and a tank top, and scuffed red and white armor. Dark hair, usually cut short, had been allowed to grow down to chin length.
The second woman kicked off her boots, sticking her feet into the waves, and looked up at the sky. The stars sparkled around a full moon, and despite it being the same night sky it always was, the second woman could not help but feel that the sky was wrong. Different, in a way that she could not quantify.
"It's about 11:58:30," she said. It was uncanny, her ability to tell the time just by looking at the night sky. A passing curiosity for most of her fellow soldiers, who could tell the time easily by consulting their IRIS AR systems.
The first woman simply stared at her. When the second woman noticed, she smiled.
"What?" she said teasingly. "Have I got something on my face? The moon is full tonight, wouldn't that be a better sight?"
"I could stare at such a sight every night," said the first, her voice low. "And not grow tired of it."
"Ah…"
"You don't quite look the same without your hat," the first added, somewhat reproachfully.
"Is that so?"
The first woman scooted closer to the second, finally tearing her dark, hungry gaze away as she rested her head on the other's shoulders. The second woman, with tremendous effort, kept her gaze focused on something else.
In the sky of the eternal world, there was only one thing to focus on anymore. A massive shape, easily dwarfing the castle, a great metal sphere that sat at the center of the world. No, better it would be said that it was the center of the eternal world, its beating heart.
"Ouroboros resumes its strike tomorrow," the second woman said. "They intend to take down Mobius for good, this time. Agnus, Keves, and even those City folk. We're all joining the fight."
Moebius. The masters of the eternal world. Those who wrote fate, those who were born from the deep recesses of the hearts of humans. The term for such creatures had been lost to all but the first woman.
"Then tonight is the last night," the first woman whispered. "One way or another, this world will end come tomorrow."
The silence that followed was broken as the second woman shifted, turning to face the first. Her eyes blazed with determination.
"When this is over," she promised. "I'll find you."
The first woman smiled mirthlessly.
"You will not remember this dream when you wake up," she said, resigned.
"Dreams are things to be made into reality," the second woman's words caused the first to freeze. "No matter how long it takes, no matter what it takes, I will make this dream, a dream where we can be together, a reality!"
The eternal world was born from the fear of loss. The fear of the end. The fear of waking up to a bitter tomorrow. Ouroboros, those who fought for the future, sought to end such a world and accepted what might happen and what might be lost.
Such a declaration, in such a world, was a beautifully grotesque thing. The first woman shuddered, and the second grabbed her face between her hands.
"Do you hear me?" the second demanded. "I'll find you, M-"
Aionios, an eternal world built on a foundation of the ever-present end. A fabricated world, the last-ditch effort of desperate dreamers. Like a butterfly dream, like dew on a leaf, like bubbles in the surf, such a dream would disappear at dawn. Leaving those who wake with only transient, fleeting memories.
Quite possibly this might be my most esoteric crossover as of the date of writing.
