The world fell apart around Nia as she watched Rex step forward. She smiled anyways, smiled as Pyra and Mythra finally admitted they loved Rex on the Gramps' back. Her heart clenched, her core trembled, and she realized she was dying.

I'm a Flesh Eater, after all. Never know when we're going to kick the bucket, I'd been warned. We're outcasts, they reminded me.

The last thing she heard was a shout of alarm- Shellhead, of all people- and she was gone. The last thing she saw was Rex's back.

[[XC2]]

"There has been a mistake, you see..."

[[XC2]]

Thump.

Thump.

Thump. Thump. Thump...

Nia's eyes opened, amber pools fractured with pain as she shot back to life. Heart- I'm alive!- beating furiously, she rocketed forwards and slammed her nose straight into something glass. The pain of death- I died there, I know it- gave way to the far more pertinent and tear-inducing pain of a broken nose. Being a blade, it mended itself in moments, but damn did it hurt.

She rubbed her nose with one hand as golden eyes drank in her surroundings. Dark greys, dots of green ether- I can't be back here- and the wavering-steel blue eyes of a man who should be dead.

I saw you die.

Her pale, trembling lips parted as her tongue struggled to form a single syllable:

"Jin."

[[XC2]]

"She awake yet?"

One dead man looked to the other, and replied with a steely calm. "Nia is awake, but she's out of sorts."

"How so?" The dead man asked, with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, "Hallucinating or something?"

Jin shook his head, something flickering on his stagnant face. "She hit her nose on the glass when she woke up."

Malos, for that was his name, laughed. "Kids."

[[XC2]]

Nia leaned back, eyes flickering between the two dead men as they talked. Malos laughed, and she had a feeling it was at her expense. Her heart sped up as she swirled into a panic, only for it to subside as she saw a concerned Dromarch looking up at her. Putting a hand to her heart, she called upon the fortitude she'd once drawn from- from Mythra and Pyra.

Needless to say, it failed. Her breaths became shallow, and the world grew dark around her. Consciousness oozed like oily sand through her fingers.

No.

The dark recoiled, banished with each beat of her heart. I'm no coward. I'm not weak.

She took a long, deep breath, and let her eyes lock onto the steel of Jin's. One hand reached up, tapping the glass from the inside. Let me out, Jin.

Something softened in Jin's eyes, and without even a heartbeat of hesitation he opened the recovery tube. I can't show them weakness. I'll have to pretend nothing is different... A spark of light entered her mind, and her catlike grin returned. No, I'll do them one better. I'm not afraid anymore.

As she stretched out a hand, grasping one side of the machine, her yellow bodysuit melted away. Her true form as a Blade sprung into being, heeled shoes hitting the ground one after the other. Ignoring Jin's clearly evident shock, she stretched, letting out a grunt of satisfaction as joints popped. Allowing a catlike grin to spread across her face, she looked at two men she'd once watched fade into ether. There was a certain freedom and comfort she could only feel in this form, a freedom she'd treasure forever. "Mmm, that was comfy. D'you think you could put something on the glass? Wouldn't want that happening again, y'know."

Jin worked his jaw for a moment, a ghost of something moving across his face. "I... suppose."

Malos grunted. "Whatever. We nearly lost you there for a bit. Good thing the Monoceros was right behind us."

Did I...? While time travel was impossible, at least according to Akhos, there weren't many other possibilities she could think of. The Monoceros was destroyed, taking Mikhail and the very machine she rested in with it. Malos didn't have his Aegis Core back yet, so she was before that, at least. They weren't attacking her, so it had to be before she saved Rex. "R'mind me, where were we? Everything's a bit jumbled." Monoceros tailing us, he said. Were we on the Maelstrom?

"You collapsed on the Maelstrom right after the kid picked up the Aegis' sword," Malos provided, glowering, "Jin killed him, but the kid managed to come back."

So that went right, at least. Without me, though... Nia would never forget that day. The day she decided to stand against Torna, stand with Rex. "Did ya get him the second time? Was anyone hurt?" What happened to Rex?

Crossing his arms, Malos grimaced, and Nia's heart soared. "He escaped on the back of a Titan..." he paused, his grimace morphing into a half-smile as Nia's heart came crashing down, "Managed to take his arm off, though."

[[XC2]]

Author's Note:

Welcome to the first chapter of "Passage of Time", a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 story. This is a massive undertaking of a story, especially given my tendency towards the slice-of-life format, and as such chapters will take a long time to write.

As always, please let me know what you think in the reviews!

Regards,

Verdin Grey

P.S. The last chapter of "With a Penguin for Company" is on the way, I swear. It's done, I'm just not happy with it.