Shulk was sitting at his kitchen table, munching away at his bowl of cereal. He knew that several people, especially Fiora, didn't appreciate him having cereal for lunch, but he didn't care. An all-encompassing thought had manifested itself in his mind the previous day and refused to go away.

There was a knock on the door. Shulk wasn't sure whether he expected it or not, but he was pleased who he found when he opened the door.

"Ah, Alvis, just who I wanted to see."

"Of course." Alvis hadn't changed a bit in the new world; while his "I know everything and won't tell you" attitude was a little faded, he still gave off a distinct aura of superior knowledge. No one ever got used to it.

"Um, why don't you come in, I guess." Shulk offered Alvis a seat at the table and pushed his cereal to the side. "So, I have a question for you. About Melia."

"Could you not ask her?"

"Well, I have her side of the story already, but it doesn't make sense. See, about a week ago, she told me that the day we met, you relayed a vision to her beforehand. Something about "look out for the gold-hair boy". But she described...uh...your description, as staring into a black void and hearing a voice speak words. And that doesn't sound at all like how my visions worked." Pause. "So, I guess my question is, is that really how you received visions?"

Alvis's face changed into an exaggerated frown as he nodded, seemingly considering what to say. Shulk was about to apologize for the question before he responded.

"I saw my visions in much the same fashion as you did."

"So you lied to her?"

A long pause. "The majority of your visions were short flashes of things that would come to pass within minutes or even seconds. By contrast, I could have visions of long stretches of the future, months or even years in advance. I told Melia what she needed to hear for the correct future to re-assert itself."

"The...correct future?"

"If you are still intrigued, then I can tell you more. However, you may be disturbed about the nature of my story, and you must promise to tell no one of it, especially Melia."

Shulk hesitated. He didn't exactly expect a straight answer from Alvis, but was at least hoping that it would be short and simple, not something convuluted he'd have to keep a secret. He sat in thought for a full minute.

"Okay."

Alvis gave a half-smirk as Shulk's vision flashed a brilliant white.

Shulk felt himself floating in endless space as Alvis's voice filled his mind.

This is the story of how Melia met Shulk - and what would have happened had she not.

Shulk was suddenly standing in the Alcamoth throne room. From a distance, he saw his party meeing with Melia on the throne, though he could not hear them.

At the time you first ventured onto the leg of the Bionis, this is what the future looked like. Melia was not sent to fight a Telethia in the forest, and was never sent into the tomb to face the trials there. Your group did not meet her until after she became empress, after the death of Sorean. She was eager for revenge upon Metal Face and joined your party solely on that basis. From there, the future proceeded essentially as you remember it, with only minor differences.

Shulk watched the world disappear and reform. He was now in what looked to be a secret occult meeting room - while it was quite dark, he could see Lorithia in discussion with Yumea.

At some point during your journey, Zanza somehow made contact with Lorithia. She and Yumea had already orchestrated several covert attempts on Melia's life, all unsuccessful. I do not know the nature of Zanza's message for certain, but I believe it pertained to a sort of deadline, and to suggest more overt schemes if necessary before time runs out and the Monado arrives in Alcamoth. At that point, the future changed.

The world vanished and reappeared again. This time, Shulk watched as the rejuvinated Melia slapped him twice and walked away from the group.

When the new meeting point arrived, Melia refused your help. She continued to search for and fight the Telethia on her own.

Shulk watched as Melia repeatedly encountered the Telethia in various locations across the forest, fighting it to a draw several times across many days.

Seeking out and attacking the beast a total of seven times, Melia refused to concede defeat, yet could never claim victory. After the seventh battle, the creature retreated to the interior of the Bionis, no longer interested in remaining in the forest.

For the first time in the series of visions, Shulk got a clear, close-up view of Melia as she limped to the Illustrious Alighting, a personal vehicle about half the size of a Havres that was how she and her guards had initially travelled to the forest. She was caked in dirt, mud, and a bit of blood, her clothes were torn all over, she was clearly undernourished, her left wing was bent at a disturbing angle, and there was a deep gash in her staff.

Melia returned to Alcamoth ashamed of herself for failure. But the worst was yet to come.

The scene returned to the throne room. Standing in front of the throne, Kallian had his head bowed to Melia, who was kneeling and still disheveled.

Kallian told her of how Sorean was killed by Metal Face as your group released Zanza from Prison Island, several days prior.

At this point, Shulk expected Melia to cry a little bit and get consoled by Kallian. He did not expect her to fly into a rage, snap her Protect Staff over the throne, snatch the Imperial Staff from its perch, and make a mad dash for the exit.

Blinded by emotion, Melia decided that you were to blame for all her troubles. Powered by nothing but rage and revenge, she stole the Illustrious Alighting and chased after you on Valak Mountain.

Shulk found himself hovering over Mumkhar as he picked his alternate self up by the neck. At this point in the history Shulk knew, Melia had fired a Mind Blast that stunned Metal Face and knocked Mumkhar enough askew to free him and the Monado.

Suddenly, the sound was turned on. The observing Shulk could hear the howling of the wind across the mountain and Mumkhar's ugly voice.

"So what's it to be weaklings? Grovel at my feet and beg?"

A new sound cut through the wind, a high-pitched whirring akin to an engine running at full power. Everyone looked up to see Melia screaming in on the Illustrious Alighting, aiming to crash-land directly on both Shulk and Mumkhar.

"Rrrgh!" Mumkhar dropped Shulk and the Monado to extend his claws and gave the incoming vehicle a mighty slash. It was knocked out of its dive and rammed into Metal Face, where it exploded in a massive fireball.

Shulk scampered over to the Monado and picked it up as the party surrounded Mumkhar. He glanced over to Fiora's body, which was not injured in the blast; Metal Face's bulk had absorbed pretty much all of it.

"You're a traitor, Mumkhar. And you're not getting away." Dunban led the attack. "Riki, Sharla! Go see if whoever just flew in is alright!"

The two teammates nodded and moved off as Shulk, Dunban, and Reyn focused on fighting Mumkhar. They arrived at the two Faces to see Melia crawling out from under the transport's wreckage, covered in fresh burns and shrapnel.

"It's...it's you! From the forest!" Sharla loaded a healing round into her rifle. "Stay still for a moment, this will-"

Sharla was cut off by a vicious staff slash to the throat and collapsed. Confused, Riki stood still for just a moment too long and was stomped into the snow before being frozen solid.

"What in the..." Reyn saw what had happened and turned to the other two. "We've got some rogue High Entia that's comin' to fight us too!"

The battle got very messy. Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban were trying to take down Mumkhar while at the same time trying to contain Melia without injuring her further. Mumkhar was somewhat bemused by the situation and continued to focus on Shulk's group, figuring he could deal with Melia pretty easily afterwards. Melia was attacking everything that moved with no rhyme or reason, firing off five elementals at a time while hemorrhaging ether from all over her body.

Eventually, Dunban managed to daze Mumkhar. Shulk took advantage of the opportunity to run up to Melia, deflecting elementals fired at him, and rip the staff out of her hands, shutting off her burst aura.

"Sorry, but we need you to stop trying to kill us!" He gave her a push in the belly with the deactivated Monado, which he expected to just knock her on her rear. Instead, she instantly fell backwards into the snow and lay unmoving. Disturbed by the result of his action but with no hint of regret, he went back to help the main fight.

The observing Shulk was horrified. The scene went quiet once again as Egil appeared and the Mechon all departed, followed by Kallian arriving in a Havres with several warriors in tow.

Emperor Kallian apologized to you and your party for Melia's actions, but the damage was done: she would never be fighting alongside you. She was carried back to Alcamoth and placed under constant guard; not allowed to leave her chambers for any reason; disgraced, sullied, no passion to even consider resistance, and with her ether affinity permanently exhausted.

The scene shifted to Melia's bedroom. It was the day of Zanza's awakening: the skies outside the window were full of newly-born Telethia. Melia was reduced to a quivering mass in her bed, alternating between profuse crying and violent outbursts.

When Zanza was reborn, the Telethia born in Alcamoth proceeded to kill all the half-bloods that remained. With no idea what was occurring, once Melia realized that the creatures would soon be after her, she made her first and only attempt to escape.

Shulk watched as Melia reached into her sock drawer and pulled out a black band. Placing it on her wrist, she tapped it to reveal a blue display showing a network of tubes. She went into her closet and clambered up through the grate on the ceiling, vanishing into the ductwork.

Using a device she had kept hidden since her childhood, Melia hid in Alcamoth's maintenance shafts for several days, raiding abandoned grocery stores for increasingly-stale food and unable to sleep more than an hour at a time. Once the edible food was exhausted and the power to the vents dwindled, her only option was to leave Alcamoth.

With the transporters out of power, Melia stood perched on the edge of the capitol, ready to jump into the sea. She was a mess again, with completely frazzled hair and feathers, and a look that suggested recent food poisoning. She had clearly raided some sort of armoury in preparation for her departure: strapped to various parts of her body were several knives, four ether revolvers, two rapiers, and a case of regenerating ammo. Holding a large sheet with both hands, she leapt off the edge and floated down to the water.

Melia travelled down the Bionis alone, clumsily fighting off native beasts along the way, looking for sanctuary. None was found. Frontier Village was a burning husk, not a single Nopon spared. With Shulk never regaining consciousness, Colony 6 was razed to the ground, the battle being lost with all hands. By the time Melia arrived to Colony 9, it had been a week since its destruction.

Shulk watched as Melia arrived to each ruined village and futily searched for survivors. Upon reaching Colony 9, the last hope, she slowly fell to the ground in despair.

Having been secretly following her the entire way, waiting for this moment, Lorithia revealed herself.

"Well, well, well. I'm honestly surprised you managed to get all the way down here. I like your...gumption." An at-your-expense laugh. "Say, I could use a little helper to wait on me whist I live out my immortal existence in the next world. You wouldn't have any objections, of course. Who would ever choose to be left behind in this dreary, lonely world?"

The world went black, leaving Shulk alone.

Melia was made into Lorithia's personal trophy slave, with no respect or dignity, kept alive against her will by painful ether injections. The will of Zanza came to pass unopposed.

The real world suddenly came back into focus. Shulk stared at Alvis for a good two minutes, trying to process all of what he had just seen.

"So..." he began. "You realized the future had changed, and told Melia a lie in order to fix it?"

"I told her what she needed to hear." Alvis repeated what he said earlier. He seemed like the type to avoid admitting he had "lied".

"But...you couldn't see what the future would be until after you change it, right?"

"That is correct. I could only see the future that would come to pass should I take no action. Anything beyond that could be no more than a well-educated guess."

"Okay, so why did you guess that you needed to poke Melia to fix things? I mean, maybe if you did something else, Zanza might not have been reborn at all, and then whatever happens to Melia is kind of irrelevant...right?"

Alvis showed the half-smirk again. "Because you told me."

It took Shulk a few seconds. "...What?"

"Do you remember the conversation we had when Zanza was reborn, and you were contemplating the meaning of your life?"

"Yes."

"While I was experiencing the vision I just showed you, I was interrupted by that conversation. I did not choose to envision that part of the future, yet it occurred as if I had. While it was an unexpected development, it also acted as the final piece of proof that you were indeed destined to escape destiny."

"...so how did it go?"

"It was almost word-for-word as what you remember - except for the ending." As Alvis opened his palm on the table top, Shulk could hear the conversation forming in his head.

"Alvis...does something feel...off about the world to you?"

"Yes. Something is indeed not as it should be. Do you know what it is?"

"...I'm not sure. But...something is missing. I can feel a...an emptiness in my heart, almost like...like I'm remembering a long-lost friend..."

As the sound died away, something else fought its way to the front of Shulk's mind. He remembered the vision that he had seen on the day that Reyn had picked up the Monado, showing him quick flashes of people he did not know at the time but would meet over the course of his adventure.

"...Okay, now I'm confused." Shulk started absent-mindingly poking his finger around on the table. "You said that, when we got to the Bionis's leg, the future had us first meeting Melia in the throne room. But in the vision I saw before we even left Colony 9, we were helping her defeat the Telethia in the forest. How did I see a future that you hadn't set up yet?"

Alvis nodded again. "Time is a curious construct. Not even I have the luxury of a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint to observe it from. And nor can I perceive the future sight of another being. It is a shame that, after all, some questions in life must remain unanswered." He stood up. "If that is all, I shall be going now. Again, I suggest that what you have just learned remain a secret."

"...no."

"No?"

Shulk looked up at Alvis. "For now, yes. But forever? I'm not so sure. Maybe one day, Melia will ask the same questions I just did. Or maybe a different question that needs the same answer. And she deserves to know more than I do."

"If that is what you believe, I will not stop you. But consider that some things are not meant to be known, that some mysteries are better off left unsolved." Alvis walked out the door.

Shulk was left to ponder.