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~Agniratha~
Fiora, at last, reached the final step, allowing herself to fall to her knees as she did. She had made it: The place where she stood, she knew, was called Agniratha, the Mechonis seat of power. Fiora now found it difficult to tell where her own personality ended and Meyneth’s began.

“My lady.”

She was not surprised to see a tall Machina woman waiting for her, her form prostrated before Fiora’s own much shorter stature. “Vanea,” Fiora confirmed.

“Your integration is complete. You must hurry, before he realizes what I have done.”

“Then let us begin.”

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“So is there a Mrs. Gadolt?” Lorithia smirked.

The response, as it had been to all of her other attempts at (overly personal) conversation, was a simple grunt, as Gadolt tended the fire. They sat in silence for a few more minutes.

“A fiance,” he finally replied.

Lorithia raised her eyebrows in response. Gadolt was certainly attractive enough, but he had the personality, so far, of a plank of wood. “When’s the wedding?”

“When this

war is over.”

Lorithia couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

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“Nnngh...?”

“Shulk.”

“Shulk! ‘Ey Shulk!”

Shulk opened his eyes and stared directly into the face of a man he thought he’d never see again. “Reyn!” He kicked his legs upward and sat up. “Where had you gotten off to? We had people from colony looking everywhere! If I’d have known...”

He trailed off as he looked around. “Actually, where are we?”

“Eh, Alvis’ll explain. Basically we’re in another dimension or something; I didn’t really understand most what he was talking about. This here’s Juju.”

Shulk only just noticed that there were two others standing behind Reyn: a young homs boy that Reyn had referred to as Juju, and a girl unlike any he had ever seen.

“...And this is Melia. She’s from the Upper Bionis, she says.”

Shulk was mesmerized. “Delighted,” he managed to make out.

“Hello.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

Shulk’s gaze passed to Juju, then hung on Melia a little longer than he’d planned, and then moved back to Reyn. “You mentioned an Alvis.”

“So he did. Welcome, Shulk. I hope you’ll forgive me for forcing you here.”

Another man had approached from behind, and now stood next to Reyn. Two people could not have looked less alike. “Hello,” said Shulk. He had a feeling Alvis was prepared to explain anything he might think to ask.

“Yes, it was I who compelled you to wield the Monado so that I could bring you here. It is time for you to gather your flock and break the chains of fate. Unfortunately, I was forced to expend a considerable amount of energy pulling these three out of harm’s way, delaying my contact with you.”

Shulk frowned. “With me? Why me?”

“A story for another time. In any event, we should soon possess the means to return to the Bionis. It is there you shall make your stand.”

“Stand? Against whom?”

Alvis’ gaze bore into him. “The very essences of the Bionis and Mechonis themselves.”

“Hear him out, Shulk,” said Reyn. “the Mechon ain’t the only guys wanting to do us in.”


“That will make itself apparent in due time. However, Zanza, the vehicle in which I was to use to return you to the Bionis, has disappeared from the world.”

Reyn seemed taken aback by this. Apparently Alvis was in the habit of revealing information exactly at the moment it became necessarily and not an iota before. “What does that mean, then?”

“It would seem we need to use an alternate beacon.”

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Vangarre sat polishing his rifle for what had to be the third time that day. The others were joking behind his back, he was sure. That was mostly all they ever did. Vangarre would maintain constant vigilance, and his subordinates would slack off and make cracks at his expense.

He’d given up on instilling any sort of discipline in them, and he’d made his peace with that, as there were more important things to do. He’d been a soldier longer than the lot of these jokers combined. And his instincts were telling him that something was about to happen, something monumental. He put the rifle down. He’d better check the cannons too.

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“We found this at her residence.”

Kallian took the slip from the guard and began to read.

“Where would Lorithia have gotten this? A mechon battle plan? I didn’t even know they

battle plans.”

“Your orders?”

Kallian rested his chin on his hand as he sat in his late father’s vacated chair. The Emperor had been a prudent man. Perhaps Melia would have rushed off to the aid of some unnamed colony on the Bionis’ leg. But he, Kallian, was not Melia.

Finally, he gave the order. “We wait. Keep your ears to the winds.”

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“My lady,” said Vanea. “The process is complete.”

Vanea gestured to one of the various reflective surfaces in the palace, and Fiora inspected her new body.

It was just as Meyneth had looked, except her face, which had been left intact. Fiora could not tell where flesh ended and machine began.

“Recall all of our forces,” said Fiora. “Zanza’s disciples will grow desperate, now that he is gone and I am safe from the Monado.”

, she knew, had been Fiora’s mission: to integrate herself with the Machina called Meyneth, so that she would be the best of both worlds. Meyneth could now control the mechon once again, and she was also immune to the effects of the Monado for good.

“They will not follow you!” boomed a voice from above.

Fiora’s hair stood on end.

“Brother,” Vanea said, apprehension plaguing her tone. “You’ve returned.”

Fiora nodded. “Egil.”

A golden mechon hovered above them, and its cockpit receded to reveal a machina man similar in appearance to Vanea.

“What scheme have you cooked up?” Egil asked. “A homs girl?”

“Appearances can be deceiving,”

countered. “There is something to be said for shoring up ones weaknesses before augmenting one’s strengths.”

“Do you care to stake your life on that assessment?”

Meyneth sighed. “Zanza is gone. He cannot hurt us anymore. You do not have to do this.”

“He is

gone! He merely wants you to think so! Trickery, lies, and deceit; it is all they know. It is their nature.

“I will shine the light of judgment upon Bionis and expose them for what they are.”

Meyneth closed her eyes. Vanea had planned for this, and it only seconds later that she was swept off her feet and placed in the cockpit of a silver mechon of Vanea’s design.

“Then, Egil,” came Meyneth’s ultimatum. “You will have to go through me.”

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“I have isolated our beacon,” Alvis calmly stated. “However, she seems to be in a state of flux. We may have to simply wait this out, or...”

The light that had manifested itself on the dome of black that extended infinitely from their oasis suddenly winked out.

“This is most troubling,” said Alvis, his tone unchanged.

“I suppose we have no choice.”

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Shulk saw the room in the basement of the Weapon Development Lab materialize before him, and he knew he was home. Melia, Juju, and Reyn all stood in front of him.

And the Monado, which he had been holding when he’d disappeared, lay cracked in two on the floor.

“Shulk,” breathed Reyn. “The Monado. What could do that?”

Shulk didn’t know, but he had a sinking feeling that Alvis had not meant for this to happen.

A series of tremors rocked the room. Melia had to fight to keep her balance, and Shulk instinctively reached out and grabbed her.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Sorry. There you are,” he finished lamely.

“An earthquake,” asked Reyn.

“Artillery,” stated Juju, as if there was no room for debate. “I’m used to it. We get hit by Mechon a lot back home.”

“We should get topside,” Shulk instructed. “Come on.”

They ran upstairs, and soon reached the commercial district. The streets were empty; the citizens had it drilled into them to take shelter when the mechon came.

Dunban and Fiora’s house was at the front of town, near the gate. He had to check on Dunban, and hopefully he’d run into Dickson on the way.

A voice materialized from seemingly all around them.

Shulk stopped dead in his tracks, the others whirling around to stare at him. He couldn’t blame them.

The questions flooded his brain.

The last question fizzled his train of thought. There really was only one course of action.

“I’m going.”

“That’s crazy, Shulk!” Reyn protested. “They’ll kill you!”

“I don’t think so.” Shulk countered. “Why ask for me? What threat am I to them by myself? I have to go, Reyn.”

“Then I’m coming with you, at least!”

“Of course,” he agreed. There was no harm in that. “Juju, Melia, you obviously aren’t--”

Juju cracked his knuckles. “I’m in.”

“Attaboy,” Reyn cheered. Shulk glared at him.

“I will accompany you as well,” Melia stated regally. “I must be apprised on the state of affairs on all parts of the Bionis if I am to take the throne.”

thought Shulk. Just who was this girl?

“Yeah, yeah,” Reyn muttered, as if he’d been getting sick of hearing that. “Let’s not keep ‘em waiting then.” He hadn’t left any room for Shulk to protest. He began to walk again.

As they approached the gates, Shulk realized that there had been nothing more than a minor shelling of the area. The Colony militia had hunkered down behind their defenses, but the melee had not been joined.

Across the field stood more mechon than he’d ever hoped he’d see, but the one giving the orders stood at the head; a giant, gold mechon with a monstrous face.

And it was from that space that the words continued. “You are Shulk?” it boomed.

He marched forward, motioning for the others to stay back. “I am,” he stated loudly.

The cockpit of the mechon opened to reveal a rather humanoid looking mechanical man. “Good,” said the pilot. “I am Egil, leader of the mechon army. I’ll not beat around the bush: you have exactly two options: surrender or die. Which will it be?”

Shulk didn’t understand. “Why is this my choice?” he implored.

“You wield the Monado. You speak for Zanza, and therefore you speak for the Bionis. Your secular associations do not concern me.”

“And if we refuse to yield to you?” Shulk said without thinking.

He was still yards away, but Shulk could have sworn he saw Egil smirk. “Then you will meet the same fate as the last one who tried to challenge me.”

The large hands on the mechon opened, and a body tumbled out, landing on the soft earth and rolling toward shulk until it stopped. He approached it, knelt down, and his blood turned to ice water as recognition dawned.

Fiora’s lifeless eyes stared back at his own.

The cries of his friends were a whisper on the breeze against the storm that raged in his heart. Abandoning all pretense of rationality, Shulk ran to the nearest soldier, grabbed his weapon, and took off at a sprint toward Egil, and toward his own demise.

The last thing he saw were a million lights against the forest backdrop as the mechons’ guns blazed to life.