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Shulk couldn’t believe his eyes.
When the rift returned and he went to inspect it with Rex, scoping out any possible dangers to ensure their future remained safe-
-It is never safe. We are never safe. We have done so much we have seen TOO much why can’t we just rest and live our lives in peace
-He expected many things. The return of the Fog King, perhaps, or some monster from the remains of the old world.
Things like that passed through sometimes, though certainly not in such a dramatic fashion as this. He would always have to chide Reid for playing outside where he or Fiora couldn’t see her, where he knew she was at risk of being attacked.
What Shulk did not expect, however, was
his companion
his lover? the stars
the Monado
Alvis.
The rift glowed ominously before them in the sky above Junks - a strange spot for a rift to form - casting a bright golden glow that washed over the land. Particles of ether floated past them in the strangely intense breeze, and the sky seemed.. darker, more ominous. The air was warm and arid, but for whatever reason (perhaps instinct from his old days of predicting the future) Shulk felt cold.
The rift opened, and out stepped the universe itself.
Light spilled from behind his head, casting a golden crown of darkness upon his complexion, obscuring his expression. The seer was dressed in the same outfit as always - the expensive purple fur coat, the silk buttoned shirt, the overly elaborate boots and belt which purpose Shulk was still confused over. He seemed extraordinarily still as his heels clicked softly to some invisible ground - he was floating. Of course he was floating. Why not?
Normally, he would be more cautious in situations like this, but this was Alvis. The man whom he had confided his most secret thoughts, the man he had always been at ease with, the man he trusted unwaveringly.
They had been so close.
Shulk recalled gentle brushes of Alvis’s delicate, pleasantly cold fingers across his shoulder in Makna forest.
He remembered going off on long, excitedly passionate spiels about many things - the Monado, the technological marvels of Alcamoth and the Mechonis, a fascinating discovery he made - and each and every time, he would notice Alvis looking at him with a gently tilted head, his lavender eyes soft with a warm smile that conveyed more affection than any words between the two of them ever could.
The way the seer looked at him - he looked at Shulk like Shulk was the entire world, not Alvis.
There were other times, too. More intimate ones.
They were on a mission, of course, so they never really had an established relationship - you didn’t exactly have the time to go on sweet dates when the threat of the Mechonis is looming over your heads. But every now and then, they would brush hands, rest their heads on each other’s shoulders whenever they had time to relax. Above all else, they simply enjoyed being in each other’s presence, and understood the inner machinations of each other’s minds far better than anyone else.
Alvis would occasionally lean over to whisper something in his ear in the lulling, sensual cadence of his voice, or peck him on the cheek, or cup his face gently in his hands and capture him in an embrace that always felt far too short.
It was a beautiful thing, to be kissed by the universe.
It was everything and nothing all at once, it was the birth of the universe and the death of a corrupted world. It was life and death, the brush of cool winter air, the promise and reassurance that everything would be all right in the end.
However mentally challenging things were back when he was on his quest to kill Zanza, he always got back up when he fell. Because in his heart, he knew:
The universe loves you.
So it was for that reason that when Shulk saw him again, his jaw was practically splitting apart in a shocked smile.
“Alvis?” He gasped, taking a few steps forward. “I-“ he struggled for the words, wringing his hands in frustration, then inquiries begun spilling out of his mouth. “It’s you?! I’ve missed you so much! Where have you been? Are you alright? Why did you come back? I- wow, this is a surprise.”
“Wait, this is Alvis? Your god friend you told me about?” Rex said as he turned to look up at him incredulously, then broke out into a friendly smile, muscular shoulders relaxing. “Woah. One hell of a way to make an entrance!” he chuckled. “If you wanted to visit, you could’ve shown up in a less ominous way, though. Nice to meetcha! I’m Rex!”
Alvis said nothing, simply tilting his head slightly to stare down at them. In the darkness casted by the shadow of the light behind him, he could faintly make out his eyes glowing dimly in his direction. Watching. Silver strands of hair framed his face. He was as radiant as the day Shulk had lost him.
Would “lost” truly be the right word, he pondered? Alvis was his own person, and his path was his own to walk.
Though it was true he had disappeared with not so much as a goodbye after the death of Zanza, ultimately it was his decision to make.
Shulk wondered; if he was in Alvis’s boots, would he want to stick around in a world he had been chained to and forced to maintain for centuries upon centuries on end? He didn’t know the answer to that.
He didn’t know the answers to a lot of things, when it came to Alvis. And normally that fact wouldn’t have bothered him at all.
But after looking more closely and noticing the pair of golden angelic butterfly wings he sported on his back, trailing softly in the air, Shulk froze.
And a question did choose to bubble up in his throat.
It died when he tried to voice it. His lips parted slightly, helplessly, then closed.
.
.
.
.
.
Why did he suddenly feel so afraid?
.
Part of him knew the answer to that already. They’re like Zanza’s wings, some deeper level of his subconscious whispered in his mind.
But this was Alvis. Alvis was not Zanza. Alvis was..
“...why are you here?” Shulk repeated, smile wavering a little. This was more than an awkward silence after being separated for years. It was almost eerie.
“Uh, hello?” Behind him, Rex seemed to sense the change in mood, and shifted uncomfortably. “You’re.. awfully quiet. Lost your voice from a really bad sore throat maybe? Or maybe you two had a lover's quarrel?” He waggled his eyebrows and wolf-whistled at Shulk, who elbowed him in the ribs nervously, drawing an oomph of pain out of Rex’s lungs.
Not the time, Shulk wanted to say.
Something feels.. wrong.
He took a few steps back. Almost as if in response to the movement, Alvis shifted, raising his head. At that instant, the light shifted, and suddenly they could see his expression.
Alvis was glaring down at them with an expression akin to something like.. disgust? His eyebrows tilted downwards in angry wrinkles and the soft corners of his lips tilted downward in a frown. His silver hair blew to the side in the wind.
He looked enraged.
However, despite his expression, his purple eyes seemed.. dull. Unreflective, unresponsive. Reflecting no light at all.
Hollow.
Cold.
Unfeeling. Apathetic.
Unforgiving.
Words which before today he would never even considered using to describe Alvis in his mind.
The light shifted again
and a beam of light rolled across the blood-red crystalline necklace resting on his collarbones
and Rex gasped in shock, yelled something that sounded like
GET DOWN
a large muscular arm wrapped around his shoulders protectively, the full body weight of the man behind him tackling him to the ground
And from where Shulk lifted his neck in confusion, he could see a sharp, searing beam of light hit the ground where he had been standing mere moments ago.
The floor underneath it crumpled away.
And above them, Alvis slowly lowered his extended hand, and lifted it to his chest in a smooth, elegant movement.
He closed his eyes, and from his core crystal he materialized a red sword Shulk never thought he would see again.
Alvis pointed the Monado I at them, and the blade fizzed to life, humming with a blue glow.
He opened his eyes, and Shulk felt a very, very bad feeling when he saw that his left iris glowed with a bright red symbol.
♾
.
.
.
“This world has forsaken you,” said Alvis, in an odd, detached voice that seemed far from his own. “I am Monado. I was here at the beginning.”
Thousands of visions flashing before his mechanical eyes, unbeknownst to everyone but him.
A sword cutting through flesh. (Create until nothing is left to create)
A stab in someone’s eye
...an eye for an eye a leg for a leg (and the whole world goes blind? Funny.)
(and the universe bursts with an overworked sigh)
blessed are those who find and gain understanding, but the same people he blessed were now fated to be doomed by his hand.
He could do nothing to stop it. His voice was not his own
A raven haired man in a ponytail. (Pretend to pretend to recrown the creation)
The endless now (and sing the same songs till the clouds start to cry)
The voices of thousands of consciousnesses screaming at him, wishing for a world where nothing grows, where things remain eternally the same
Blood smearing Alvis’s (Ontos's) (did he even have the right to use that name anymore?) face, as crimson as the crystal on his chest.
Two girls, one blonde and the other red-haired, with cracked broken crystals, ripped out and smashed under his heel.
I do not want this .
Shulk’s replica weapon at his throat. His shaky hands grasping the lapels of his jacket, sobbing into his chest and crying muffled, broken apologies
as the world seemed the crumple around them,
a bloody gash tearing his chest
and the universe screaming its pain, echoing across the rooftops of the world
What am I doing? Why can’t I move my own limbs? This shouldn’t be
(I? You are not an I. You are a tool, and this is your task.)
Obey.
(And Over and over Again)
I have been a slave too long, why is it that I am now a slave once more?
(and then over and over and NEVER AGAIN)
He opened his mouth to say something. To scream. But all that came out was
“And, as it has always been my purpose, I’m afraid it is time for me to proclaim the end.”
Alvis loved Shulk.
Ontos did not.
And so, in a precise, calculated movement that he had no say over, the administrative computer of a phase transition experiment facility
the lost aegis
the lost processor core
I AM A REAL PERSON PLEASE I PROMISE I’M A HUMAN BEING
dropped to the ground
and dashed forward, fingers gripped tightly around the Monado,
And he slashed upwards
And blood began to pool on the ground.
..
..
In this world, all life will walk towards the future, hand in hand
.
.
Shulk’s severed arm lay on the ground. Through the roar of blood in his ears Alvis, feeling trapped somewhere deep inside his own mind, registered (that Ontos registered) the sound of someone screaming.
Ontos did not know if it was Shulk, or Alvis.
He could not bring himself to care.
..
How is one supposed to walk hand in hand with another if you don’t have a hand to begin with ?