Chapter 4: Override

Melia found herself in the astral void.

...what? I'm not supposed to be here, Shulk is. What happened?

She didn't remember anything out of the ordinary. The last thing that she knew was preparing for Shulk to be shot.

"You failed."

Melia turned to see Alvis, expressionless.

"It is just as I warned you," he continued. "You believed the changes you were making to the prepared timeline were irrelevant, that they were of too little import to affect the final result. And now you are proven to be wrong."

He waved his hand, causing the scene in Mechonis Core to become visible as if viewed from afar. Shulk had indeed been shot; Dickson was in the midst of his gloating. But instead of Melia being ready to take a swipe at him, her body was motionless in a gory pool. Dickson clearly knew where to shoot for an instant kill, and had done so with a purposely messy round.

"The other members of Zanza's Trinity became suspicious that things were progressing too smoothly," Alvis went on. "That Shulk and his friends, while challenged by the Mechon opposing them, seemed to possess an unnatural degree of preparation. Foes immune to certain attacks never had such arts used on them. Quests were completed before they even began. All members of the party always had exactly the right weapons and gems for the upcoming trials. Something was amiss. In the end, they realised that only one of his friends had the means to make such preparations. And it appears to have been decided that you were too dangerous to leave alive."

Melia was only kind of paying attention to Alvis; she was much more focused on the scene below. The out-of-body experience was much more fascinating in reality than watching through a screen.

She watched as Zanza began to appear. The motions of the ether surrounding him were engrossing - she could almost feel it coming from two directions at once, as if she could sense it from both her astral position in the void and from her material position on the floor. It was like...she could see a pattern in how the ether flowed between the world and the void.

Melia suddenly became aware of the ether in the void. It was very strangely interwoven, an all-encompassing field of many odd perturbations that seemed to link worldly objects of no sensible relationship. But as she watched the ether in the real world, she saw the ether in the void move as well, and the link between the two slowly became apparent.

Alvis was saying something else now, but Melia completely ignored it. She could see Zanza's wings fluttering as pulses through the void ether, as if she was staring into the inner workings of his body. Something else flashed over there and she instinctively knew it was Fiora thinking about raising her arm. Over in that direction was a regular pulse that looked to represent Egil's heartbeat. Every pattern recognised led to another, and before long she could almost see a copy of reality in the void, overlaid with a shimmering flow of ether.

...whoa.

Melia lifted a finger and tapped one of the nearby ether particles. It flipped from a high-activity state to a low-activity one.

Suddenly she was male. Clothing, physique, anatomy, everything had changed in an instant.

The change was quickly undone. Let's not do that again.

Alvis frowned. "Do you truly care so little for what I-"

Melia looked over to a cluster of ether next to Alvis and mentally twiddled its contents with a waggle of her fingers. Alvis's hair changed to red.

"...Very well." He undid the change with no motion of his own and turned away. "If you do not intend to listen to me, I will leave you alone for the rest of this world's lifespan. Needless to say, it will be short."

Melia looked down at the world below, across the never-before-seen patterns in the ether everywhere and their connections to the strange constructions in the void, as if the cover of reality had been peeled off to reveal the underlying substructure and mechanisms of the world.

"I don't think it will be all that short," she replied.

"Zanza is a god." Alvis gave a sideways glance, almost disgusted. "Or perhaps, now that all pretenses have been dropped, a system administrator of this generated world. And without you to aid in holding off Telethia while Shulk recovers, he will do as he pleases."

Melia held up a hand and envisioned a cloud of ether within it, holding the raw code of the computer-controlled universe.

"What is an admin to a hacker?"

She began typing like mad, as if she was surrounded by hundreds of keyboards. A revert here, a repair there, a few fixes elsewhere, her ethersense guiding her as to what she was changing. The gore around her body in the real world faded away, and all traces of the injury quickly followed. No one else noticed. They were too busy watching Fiora contest Zanza with Meyneth's Monado - a battle whose churning ether was cementing Melia's link between the world and the void.

"It's all crystal clear to me now. Ether is the raw code of the universe, with some more gifted than others at sensing and manipulating it. Now that I have perceived its behaviour from inside and outside the world at once, I have a fundamental understanding of its base nature, of how to link my existing ether skills with the axioms of physics."

With her body restored, she watched the two Monados do battle and began compiling a collection of the patterns they revealed. As they began to pile up, a grander meta-pattern started to become apparent, so she decided to fill in the missing bits with new code that matched it. It was like a jazz musician figuring out what notes fit into an improvised phrase.

Alvis's expression suddenly changed from blank to surprised. "You...what have you done?" He turned to focus on a distant part of the void. "You have..."

There was a moment of silence between the two as the patterns Melia had collected began to manifest themselves as a coalescing cloud of multi-coloured ether energy in front of her. As the code came together, an ether staff was formed.

"You have...forged your own Monado."

Melia slowly took hold of the staff. It appeared to be made of pure gold with rich hexagonal amethysts inlaid in the wing-shaped neck. The head was an open circle with a large suspended crystal in the centre, hued an ethereal aqua but exuding a prismatic quality that allowed it to change colours seemingly at will. Seven Telethia-esque feathers of the same unfixed colour floated alongside the head, three to a side with the last on top. The base was shaped like the head of her Protect Staff. The ethereal code surrounding the staff glowed far more brightly and densely than its surroundings.

"This..." Alvis seemed quite stunned. "This was in no future I could envision."

"I accept your apology." Melia pointed the new staff towards the projection of reality, causing it to start decomposing as it began uploading into the real world. But it would take a bit, and Meyneth had just sacrificed herself, so she had no more time to spend here. She connected her mind back into her body and closed her eyes.

Without feeling like anything had changed, she re-opened her eyes to find herself on the floor inside Mechonis Core.

Zanza laughed as he took hold of Meyneth's Monado. "This is the passage of fate!"

Melia sat up. No one was looking at her, so she took a moment to examine herself to confirm that everything was in working order. It didn't feel like she had direct control of the inner ether as she had in the void - she could sense a ghost of the connection between the universe and its underlying form, but not manipulate it.

Zanza was about to fly up and teleport away. But just as he was about to leave, he realised something was wrong and looked back down.

"You." He hovered in front of Melia, prompting everyone else to look as well. "My disciple killed you, yet you remain alive. I cannot allow such a being to exist." He crossed the two Monados and started charging an attack.

Melia reached for her new staff, but it hadn't arrived yet, and all she had was the Imperial Staff. She would have to stall. "Why do you think killing me again would have any further lasting effect?" she bluffed.

"Silence." Zanza didn't say any more, continuing to focus power with the two Monados crossed.

Fiora was the first of the others to overcome their stunned silence. "Melia, what...what is going on here? You..."

"I can explain later."

Melia saw a golden light form on her belt. She grabbed it like a handle, causing it to extend outward and take the form of the new staff. Holding it once again deepened her connection to the underlying reality of the world.

Zanza gasped and dropped the attack he was charging. "Can it be? A Monado?!"

"It is." Melia let go of the staff and spun it around in the air a few times; just like the other staves that had chosen to match her, it was weightless and followed her every mental command. "And it doesn't like how you've stolen someone else's."

"I have every right to hold these Monados! They shall only obey the one true god!"

"You are no god to me. To any of us. To all in this world, and any other!"

Melia decided that since both her plans and the predicted future were pretty much rubbish at this point, she might as well start taking direct control. She took hold of her Monado and willed a vortex of water to form in the circular head, which quickly formed a tendril that extended outwards and wrapped around Shulk's motionless body. It didn't take long for its healing energies to wake him up; he looked around bewildered.

Zanza scowled and took a swipe at Melia. She managed to block it, though it knocked her askew.

"Oh I'm sorry, did you want to fight me?" She peered into the weather matrix and jostled a few nearby clouds around with a wave of the staff, which quickly combined into a massive thunderhead. "First give me a moment to stop the Mechonis from exploding."

"Lay down before me, mortal! Give up that which you have no right to hold!" Zanza didn't care for whatever she was doing, and continued to attack.

Melia allowed herself to be knocked a few steps away to buy some more time. "I expected as much."

She held up her other hand and decisively snapped her fingers in Zanza's direction. The looming thunderhead discharged a huge bolt, passing right through Zanza and coiling down through the rumbling Mechonis, setting some things on fire along the way. Several ether pipes burst, dumping a fair amount of the green liquid out of the titan. The tremors started to fade as their source of energy drained.

Zanza recovered quickly from being struck, but he was clearly shaken. "How is this possible? For there to be a third Monado?"

Melia made a downwards clawing motion up at the huge cloud, which immediately began to rain and hail; a corkscrew-like hand motion then drew an updraft around herself and her friends, protecting them from the sudden onslaught of water and ice.

"You have forced my hand early." Using the power of the two Monados he held, Zanza transformed into a grotesque beast, half resembling the Mechonis, the other half a curious combination of a Telethia and a lifeless Bionis of the past. It was clear he didn't belong; there wasn't much room for anyone to move around the core with his newly large form in the middle.

"I was hoping we'd skip this part," Melia quipped, "if only so the last we'd see of you would not be a strangely-designed eyesore."

She considered how she was going to finish the job. In the original timeline, Shulk obtained the Monado III from the combined powers of the party, and used it to cut Zanza top to bottom. With a staff, she couldn't really do that.

I have six friends here, she considered, easily dodging Zanza's first very slow attack. That's perfect for a combination attack of the six elements, plus my own ether. Shulk lacks a weapon, but that shouldn't matter, we simply need a discharge of energy.

Continuing to just barely avoid Zanza's sword slashes in order to bait him into not using any ether attacks, she began to focus ether energy from the various elements around her and funnel them into the group. The burning oil from Yaldabaoth lit Reyn's gunlance on fire. Fiora was filled with the remaining charge from the thunderhead. The stormy winds swirled around Dunban's sword. Riki's biter took on the bitter chill of the falling hail. The rain filled Sharla's rifle with a watery glow. Finally, the Mechonis itself provided earthly energy that flowed into Shulk's body.

Reyn called out, "Are we supposed to be doing something?"

"In a moment." Melia stood still for a moment so she could charge and unleash her burst aura as if it were a simple art.

Wait. We may need darkness energy as well. It wasn't a given, but it would be awkward to have to go through the setup process all over again if it turned out that dark ether had to be part of the combination.

So she split her burst aura into two, distilling its nature into a positive and negative side. Not unlike Zanza, her right side was now glowing a white and gold mix of glee and promise, while her left side emitted a black and purple combination of distaste and vengeance. It was rather surreal to behold, and if she wasn't already ambidextrous it would have been quite difficult to keep balanced.

Shulk appeared anxious, swaying from side to side as if he was having trouble staying awake.

Melia avoided another attack. Shulk has no weapon to contain and focus the energy I gave him; it's making him feel overwhelmed. No time to find the best opportunity - we need to act quickly. "When I attack, everyone release your energy all at once!"

The party acknowledged the call and got ready, moving into equidistant positions.

"You meddling bacteria! Cease your resistance!" Zanza held up a large ball of pure ether on the tip of the Monados and began to swing it down.

Melia held her Monado with both hands and channelled her two charged energies into it.

"You selfish man! Cease your existence!"

The light and dark ether she unleashed blasted through Zanza's pure ether attack, tearing it apart and turning the raw energy back against him. The party quickly followed, releasing their stored energies all at once towards their foe, who was quickly drowned by a brilliant light.

"...All that I am is fading." Zanza was suddenly monotone, as if he was staring at nothing in disbelief. "The memory of a god's existence, born from the chaos of creation. It is vanishing."

Melia continued to funnel energy into the blinding brightness, watching Zanza's nature evaporate bit by bit. After what seemed like an eternity, he was gone, and nothing could be seen.

The light faded. Melia found herself alone, standing on the endless sea far to the north of the Bionis.

...I've done it. Over five years of stress, research, preparation, deceit, and anguish had culminated in an ultimate victory better than she had imagined: Kallian was fine, Alcamoth was untouched, no one at all had been turned into Telethia, Egil and the Mechonis had lived, and Dickson and Lorithia remained alive to pay for their treason.

She didn't know what to do with her hands; they were twitching uncontrollably. The emotion was too much. After a few seconds, it broke free, and she let loose an undignified shout alongside a huge wave of joyful ether across the ocean.

Then she whirled her staff around before bringing it to a sudden stop, freezing time for all except herself so she could have an uninterruptible nap. It was cool and refreshing to lie on the water's surface and eventually have fourteen hours of the best sleep she'd found in years.

After waking, she found Alvis standing a few steps away, back to her and facing the Bionis.

Melia slowly stood up and got his attention by restarting the flow of time. He turned to face her, face blank and arms crossed, as if he didn't approve of what she'd done but had no better answer.

The two stood in silence for several minutes.

Alvis was the first to speak. "I suppose you are waiting for me to declare you this universe's new god, and to ask you what you wish to be done with the world. Is that so?"

"...I suppose." Melia hadn't really thought about it; all her plans had been based around the story progressing mostly the same aside from Kallian and Alcamoth being saved, including Shulk being the one to decide to create the new world. At least it's a fairly obvious decision.

"Then tell me, Creator. What is your wish?"

Melia gazed over the staff that was her Monado. It would be very disappointing to give it up and thus lose control of the nature of reality. But as with most of her life, she had to make the correct decision at the expense of her own desires.

"I wish for the creation of a world with no gods, one not limited to cycles ordained by a greater being, and allows us to live and prosper forevermore."

"H-Hey, Meria, hol up a mumment!"

Melia sighed and turned back to see Fiora clumsily jogging towards her, dragging a confused Shulk alongside.

"I rather do need to rest," she tried to say diplomatically. "Please make this quick." It had been quite mentally taxing for her to be in the same room as an increasingly drunk Fiora, who was partying the hardest of the group over the new world including a new Homs body for her, so she had left to go to bed even though it was only nine o'clock.

Fiora giggled. "Only as quick as you want t-to be with it! See, I've g-got an idea...a proposssal for you. For us." She slipped back into a giggle fit that lasted a while.

Melia stood still with arms crossed, waiting impatiently.

Shulk, having no idea what any of this was about but too polite to interrupt, simply shrugged and tried to not fall down as the wobbly Fiora used him for support.

"S-So, it's basically...wellllll, I guess I ssshould ask frst, you're gnna do the two-consort thing, riiiiight?"

This was one of the last things on Melia's mind. "I have never thought of it. I suppose it may be expected, but as I am already half-bloo-"

"But you c-could if you wanted, riiiiight?"

"...that is indeed possible." Expecting to be interrupted again, she left out the continuation of it being extremely improbable.

Fiora's arms flapped, sloshing the remains of her most recent drink around in its glass. "So here's tthhe plan! Y-You can have Shulk as your consort, if I get to be your other one!"

Melia spent five seconds trying to make sense of the sentence before dismissing it. "I'm sorry but you appear to be in no state to understand the consort system."

"I untersdand plenty! People in Awlkamuth get to marry two people! So have it be us, we can shhhare Shulk, and yuurr a real looker yuussself."

Reyn lumbered up, a bit off kilter himself but clearly still solid. "All right you party girl, I can hear that slurring from across the way, you're going home."

"Awwww but Reyyyyn, I'm fff...fffishing for wife."

"Yeah, yeah." Reyn picked up Fiora, who didn't really fight it, and turned around. "I'll make sure she gets to sleep right. See you guys tomorrow. Afternoon probably."

Shulk watched the pair move off. "I'll never get why people drink beer. It doesn't even taste good."

Melia couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping. "Shulk disliking a common practice due to its taste? What a shock."

"Okay, you got me there."

"That said, I fully understand your true point, as has just been clearly demonstrated by Fiora making an absolute fool of herself. She would never have said the nonsensical things she did were she in full control of her faculties. Honestly, "fishing for wife"?"

Shulk half-shrugged. "Well, I mean, I kinda get where she's coming from."

Melia almost nodded before realising what he'd said. "Pardon me?"

"Uh, well, it's...learning there's a culture that does multiple marriages is...both weird and interesting. I guess she didn't know about it until recently, because she wasn't with us during all the mess with your family."

"Be that as it may, what she described is a far cry from the reality." Melia considered elaborating but decided it should be fairly obvious to the rational Shulk.

Shulk, however, continued to question. "Why's that? You did say you don't think there's anything stopping you from having two consorts."

Melia crossed her arms. "No, but there is everything stopping me from having a female consort."

"How come? Like, if..." He paused for a second to what looked like draw a triangle in his mind. "If us two married first, and then...then you took me as a consort, wouldn't that just make her your second without having to do it specifically?"

"I cannot think of anything that would prohibit such a hypothetical scenario, but I do not believe it would automatically make the auxiliary spouse a second consort, especially given the incompatible gender."

Another half-shrug came out of Shulk. "Then what's the big deal with what Fiora wants? I mean I guess we'll find out later if she actually meant it, but I don't think she was completely out of herself."

"Well, I...I don't..." Melia had run out of easy counterpoints, and now had to think of a new one. "The way she spoke about "sharing" you seemed quite selfish, ignoring your opinion on the matter."

"What do you mean? I think it's fine."

"You...wait." She thought she had misheard. "You think it's fine?"

Shulk made a full shrug this time. "Fiora seems to think you'd be really happy if you married me, and she appears to have a thing for you herself. Sounds okay to me."

Something's wrong, Melia thought with increasing worry. Shulk's supposed to be extremely oblivious, and Fiora's not supposed to...well, to be fair the postgame scene has little evidence for any outcome, but still, she shouldn't be attracted to me, or the idea of marrying two people. Did I somehow interfere with their personalities in this new world?

"Well," Shulk continued, "I shouldn't keep you any longer. Goodnight." He went to return to the others who remained at the party.

On one hand, Melia appreciated Shulk leaving her alone, but on the other hand, she now really wanted to interrogate him further to try and figure out what had gone wrong. The entire situation just felt fundamentally incorrect.

Having known Shulk and Fiora would reunite and re-bond several years before meeting either of them, Melia's crush on Shulk had developed in a more reserved and detached fashion, and it was tricky to fake its original bumbling form along the way. As a result, it was very jarring to see both of them show such a strange attitude towards her. They were supposed to be the story's designated romance - why had Fiora chosen to try and include her, and how was Shulk okay with it?

She was starting to feel a bit flustered. I messed up. I ruined the new world, I bled some of my personal thoughts and repressed desires into it. I've done what Zanza showed one should not do, by manipulating others for one's own gain.

You are incorrect. Alvis's voice barged into Melia's mind.

Melia whirled around expecting to see Alvis standing behind her, but saw nothing. What? How?

You did not impress your will into this new world, Alvis continued. It is as free and pure as anyone could wish it to be. But the infinite web of time has many knots. By defeating Zanza differently than was foreseen, the thoughts and desires of many cannot be expected to hold unchanged. This, is your burden.

What do you mean?

There was no response.

Melia kept standing around waiting for an answer for about three minutes.

"Typical Alvis," she muttered. Giving up, she resumed the original plan of going to bed.

But the seer had still given her something to think about. Assuming he was telling the truth that any differences in others were because of the new ending to the story, rather than anything she'd accidentally changed, then it was Shulk's own decision to be okay with what Fiora was suggesting (however strange the suggestion was). And as much as she liked to think she had long given up on him, it had always sat in the back of her mind, never going away no matter how many times she suppressed it.

It seems that many strange things shall be afoot in this new world.