Outside, John disappears

Had the universally-inflected Monados remained extant and viable, Shulk would still have given them up in favor of sole reliance on his own engineering and wills. Therefore, his later urges to draw strength from the Monado become null and void; it's not Alvis, anymore. Of course, he's not distressed that he gave up that semblance of control over his [friend?], lacking any other choice, but...

He'd gotten more used to Alvis's presence under his hand than he'd like to admit.

Each gear, in its turn, clocks another, by very nature, reciprocal (assumedly); none among us can be the whole machine.