beyond the silver rainbow

Mature | Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death | Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (Video Game)

Gen | for MachineryField | 431 words | 2022-07-16 | Xeno Series | AO3

Egil (Xenoblade Chronicles), Miqol (Xenoblade Chronicles), Vanea (Xenoblade Chronicles), Maynus | Meyneth, Zanza (Xenoblade Chronicles), Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Inspired by Music, Source: Genesis, Source: Phil Collins

Egil fights until he can't anymore, but the thing that dies isn't his spirit.

So his father has sent the Homs to kill him.

Typical. Miqol had never been able to see. He thought diplomacy would bring resolution to their massacred people.

If he really took himself to be the chief of the Machina, then why did he sit down there, in the village?

They are cowards. He would never ask the weak to fight for the cause he has taken up, but for the strong to oppose him while simultaneously not contributing a thing...

And Vanea. Ever the sympathetic sister, she wants to play both sides in her loyalty to each of them, acting as if she could ever find a way where no one gets hurt.

If she would stand beside him, then why does she not do so? She knows it is futile to hope for peace.

What if he did stop? What if he called back all the Mechon from their brutal assaults, ceased reprogramming the Face units, let alternate fate run its course? What if he had never set Metal Face on that Homs colony?

Pitiful. Archaic doubts. It is far too late for that. Lady Meyneth's sword, struck deep into the Bionis, is only the smallest retributive measure of what Zanza's terrible, endless reign deserves in return.

With his own hands, teeth and nails and claws, Egil will destroy the force and the god that destroyed his people.

If he has to. But he does not have to. He merely must use his ingenuity to overtake his captors.

He is proud, yes. But Zanza is prouder, and ever so much more foolish.

Lady Meyneth has always been gentle and good. He does not deserve to call himself opposite and equal to her.

(.Even she becomes traitor to them, eventually)

He rends the wires from his shoulders, in Yaldabaoth, and he rips great gouges in the Titans' sides.

Your blade did not cut deep enough, he thinks to Lady Meyneth, but mine will. Ours will. We will.

You cannot cut me down. You cannot overtake my soul. When I offer myself to the artifice of the Mechonis, in its precious core, there will be no quibbling. There will be no doubt. Not any longer. No more!

No more. What there once was, there cannot be again. Your wish...

.it did not spread far enough. Lady Meyneth...

For the Homs did not want to kill me. That was Zanza. And if I can lend myself for one thing, as I see my aim to be a lost cause...

I shall let my body be the spark.

Go, Shulk. For the future.