Chapter 1: A Destiny Rewritten

"Do you wish to change it? The future. It is every man's desire to change the future. Is that not so? Even if everything has been predestined, will you not oppose it?" — Alvis

Within a sealed tower, atop a giant's frost-covered arm, there lay the bodies of a Homs research team. In the middle of the circular tower, seated upon the pedestal built to support it, was a vibrant, red blade. It was oddly shaped, unlike any blade that existed upon the giant's corpse known as the Bionis. The Monado, as if it was pleased, began to shine in the hole above its hilt and a golden light emerged. It spread through the air slowly, as if searching for something. This light was an existence beyond comprehension, a holy miracle that nobody would ever witness.

Finally, the light circled above one of the bodies of the researchers. It was not a man nor a woman that it chose. Not a strong body or a tall body. Rather, it focused upon the sole child brought along. Whatever hopes, dreams, or ideals the child once had were nothing. It was just another corpse, another part of the tragedy that took place. Pleased, the light descended upon the boy, melding with him and causing him to glow briefly before fading once more.

Quietly, the boy began to breathe again.

Now, it was all a waiting game. If things had gone according to plan, then it would be only a matter of time. A small waiting game until a servant of the Monado came to retrieve it and the boy. It had waited centuries for this opportunity. It had foreseen it all. Every conflict, every tragedy, every happy moment. It was all plann—

"Riki find new location! Everyone happy!"

Oh no.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

A group of Nopon led by this… Riki, barged into this sealed tower as if it was their playground. With packs and coats, they approached the research team. Upon realizing that they were, in fact, not sleeping and were all dead, the Nopons' face grew somber. Only their fearless leader remained chipper, as if nothing was wrong. However, one was still breathing.

"Riki find littlehom-hom!" The round, furry creature exclaimed. The others gathered around, intrigued and excited. Almost forgetting about the carnage surrounding them, the Nopon all gently prodded at the sleeping child and examined him. Despite the frigid conditions outside the tower and the clearly lifeless Homs surrounding him, the boy seemed to be in surprisingly good condition, at least upon first glance.

"Others say Riki should take care of littlehom-hom! Don't worry! Riki will do his best!" Riki said to the air. The others looked confused, but they chalked it up to his above-average energy level. How many pollen orbs did he eat a day?

Though they couldn't do anything about the bodies (they were too big for little Nopon to bury, so laziness was the best option), the Nopon adventurers began to fashion a stretcher in order to carry the boy out. While the rest of the team began work on that, their leader Riki (who was working off a debt with this adventure) approached the Monado.

He tilted his whole body to the side in confusion and poked the heavenly blade. It electrocuted his paw and he let out a yelp of surprise before growling.

"Bad sword! Riki mad! Sword supposed to choppy-choppy! Not shocky-shocky!" With a swift motion, Riki removed his biter and smacked the Monado off its pedestal and onto the stonework behind it.

Perhaps, if he were able to hear the voice of the being that once dwelled in the Monado, he'd hear something like this:

'Damn you, you insignificant worm dwelling on my body! I will destroy you! I will kill every single one of you for this! You'll pay for your insolence! Damn it all! I can see everything! Why couldn't I see this?! Get your disgusting paws off my vessel! Disgusting! When did you last bathe, you mongre—'

But, fortunately, he was ignorant to the annoying, whining voice.

With the stretcher complete, they carried the boy outside the sealed tower together. For now, they thought they should bring the poor orphan back with them. Sadly, they had a little trouble carrying him as their teamwork was not up to par.

'Ow! Shit! Damn it! Fuck!'

They dropped the boy a few times along the way.

About 27 times.

Chief Dunga had not expected Riki to come back with a Hom Hom boy. He didn't expect Riki to come back with anything, of course. That Nopon was always slacking off or wasting time. That was why he was one of the top contenders for the title of Heropon. The number of Nopon in greater debt than Riki numbered less than two. As in there was literally one other Nopon in more debt. So, while he wasn't surprised by Riki's lack of any hard work, he was confounded with how he took a Hom Hom boy home with him.

Did he kidnap him? Plan to hold him for a ransom in order to pay off his debt? Chief Dunga began to sweat. This could be bad. A war with Hom Homs would end very badly for the peaceful Nopon. They needed to return the boy and apologize. He hurriedly descended from his home near the top of the gigantic tree they lived in.

"Chief Dunga!" excitedly chirped Riki. "Riki went to big icy tower like Chief Dunga asked! Riki find many new places! Riki went to forest, then to sea, then icy-icy, then to other forest, then to different sea—"

"Riki!" Dunga scolded the Nopon, "I never said to go to any of those places!"

"But Chief Dunga told Riki to find new places!" Riki responded, still perky and proud.

"I said to look for new races! Bird people trade for information, Debtpon," Dunga corrected, "Makna forest very big. Very easy to find new things. You only needed to go outside your door and tell me about something new! Like Unreliable Rezno! Unique things easy to find!"

Riki sighed and looked at his pack full of all the new things he found in the snowy mountains. He pulled out what appeared to be some sort of cabbage frosted over by the cold.

"Riki guess this useless then. Too cold to eat!" He quickly tossed it outside where a Korlba Pterix swooped down and swallowed it whole. "Riki dump the others later."

"What about the littlehom-hom you brought with you?" Dunga asked, forcibly ignoring the fact that Riki was dumping potential food.

Riki dropped a second cabbage he had ready to chuck. "Yes, littlehom-hom! Riki and Henchpon find littlehom-hom in big icy tower! He was sleepy-sleepy, so Riki and Henchpon take him back to warm Makna to wakey-wakey!"

Dunga eyed Riki suspiciously. A Hom Hom child completely unattended yet still seemingly unharmed in such a cold and unforgiving land? While the Nopon knowledge of this frigid mountain was limited, what they did know was that it was not exactly welcoming. "Riki, were there other Hom Homs with this littlehom-hom?"

"Riki saw some, but they told Riki they were going to far away place. Hom Homs were sad, but Riki wanted cheer them up! Hom Hom friends told Riki to take care of littlehom-hom, so Riki agreed!"

This confused Dunga further. Why would Hom Homs just give up a child so easily? Was it possible that they couldn't care for him any longer? Did the littlehom-hom's parents perish in a blizzard? Were the remaining Hom Homs unwilling to look after one of their own? How horrible!

Thus, through a few misunderstandings, the boy named Shulk came to be under the care of the Nopon.

In a hastily built hut outside of the tree that encompassed the frontier village, light spilled over a small child's eyelids. They fluttered for a bit, before revealing two blue orbs. The four-year old child, Shulk, sat up and looked around his new home, confused.

He knew his name was Shulk.

Everything else however…

Gone. Where he was, how old he was exactly, his family… he possessed no memories whatsoever. The small hut mainly consisted of the fur bedding. There was a small chest to the side of it, and a few shelves along the wall. Sitting up and then pushing himself to his feet, Shulk made his way towards the small opening that led out of the tiny abode.

Upon exiting, he bore witness to a myriad of trees stretching far beyond his vision. The green grass felt cool beneath his feet. Though he hadn't realized it until now, he was wearing nothing but a thin cloth around his waist. Eager to find somebody who could explain his situation, the boy climbed the hill to his left, taking notice of the gigantic tree behind the home he'd been in.

This place was unreal. At least, that's what Shulk would think if he had any place in his memories to reference it by. His blonde hair swaying in the wind, Shulk reached the top of the hill only to be greeted by a small, fluffy, round creature with an X-shaped scar on his belly and ridiculous hair that curled up towards the heavens.

"Littlehom-hom wakey wakey?! Riki very happy!" Riki chirped happily. Shulk tilted his head in confusion.

"Ri...ki?" He asked confusedly. In response to this, the Nopon practically bounced in joy. "My name… Shulk."

Riki flapped his ears a bit, causing him to lift off the ground with glee. "Shulk? Hom-Hom names weird!"

Shulk continued to eye Riki with confusion. "Hom-Hom…? What's…?"

"Shulk no know what Shulk is?" Riki questioned, his eyes widening. "Shulk is very little littlehom-hom if Shulk never heard of Hom Homs!"

The rotund creature's vocabulary just further disorientated the young boy. "Littlehom-hom? Me… I'm a littlehom-hom? What is Riki?"

Riki reached over with one of his long, prehensile ears and patted Shulk on the back. "Shulk littlehom-hom! Littlehom-hom little Hom Homs! Riki Nopon! Nopon strongest, smartest, funnest, best things on Bionis!"

Shulk blankly looked at Riki, his mind trying to sort out all of the words that came out of the Nopon's surprisingly large for his size mouth. "So Shulk… Littlehom-hom little Hom Hom? And Riki… Nopon… Bionis?"

Riki eagerly nodded, his whole body bobbing from the gesture. "Shulk fast learner! Shulk become good littlepon for Riki! But Riki bring Shulk to Chief Dunga first. Riki show Chief Dunga that Riki best dadapon ever!"

Shulk still could only somewhat comprehend Riki's ramblings, so he simply nodded in agreement to whatever this "Nopon" had in store. He wrapped a small hand around Riki's hand-like ear and followed him as he led him with a bounce in his step inside the towering tree that had caught his eye earlier.

While Shulk couldn't remember any sights before this point, there was a good chance he had never seen anything quite like this. A round plaza stretched out before him with Nopon of various colors- from green to blue to pink and everything in between- scrambling about, many with large, overflowing baskets of wares for sale. In the center of the bustling scene was what appeared to be a shimmering, golden orb hovering above a pool so clear one could easily see to the bottom of it.

Off to the left, a staircase disappeared into a higher level of the tree. As Shulk craned his neck to look up, he noticed that the staircase seemed to wind around the inside of the tree several times, sometimes branching off into more complicated paths. To the right on this ground floor was a path that led to another room entirely.

One of the Nopon in the middle of the room walked towards them. From his signature pink beard and column of hair, he was easily recognized by any Nopon.

"Welcome, Hom Hom, I am Chief Dunga!" Chief Dunga said pleasantly. "It is very good to see up and about."

"Where am I? Why can't I remember anything?" Shulk asked, getting straight to the point.

Chief Dunga sighed.

'Oh dear. I didn't expect this,' Chief Dunga thought with a heavy heart. How heartless of these Homs to leave a poor, amnesiac boy in the snow!

"You are in Makna Forest. And don't worry. We'll take care of you from now on," Chief Dunga responded. He had no answer as to why the boy had no memories. However, he would offer him the best Nopon education had to offer!

Which, surprisingly, wasn't that great.

A lone figure trudged through the snow, covered in a thick coat. The wind swept aside the cloak obscuring his face, revealing a perfect trimmed, blonde mustache that descended from the upper lip to the chin. His eyes were determined, and his greasy blond hair was partially covered by the red bandana wrapped around his head. His name: Dickson.

Finally arriving at the tower that was his initial destination, he pushed the doors open.

"Sorry I'm late. Had a few problems along the way. Alright, where's the brat a—"

He froze.

The Monado was knocked off its pedestal and its sleek red form could be seen just barely peeking out from behind it. Ignoring the now decaying bodies of the researchers, Dickson sprinted toward the Monado. Upon picking it up, he found that the spiritual body he was looking for no longer dwelled within the weapon.

And, given how the bodies weren't even breathing…

"Bloody hell... Damn it! ZANZAAAAAAAA—"

In an area surrounded by stars, a smug grinned manifested on Alvis' face.

All according to plan.

The future had been changed to such an extent that nobody was quite sure where it was going to go. And was such a thing so bad?

A/N: What you've just read is a collaboration between Gracidea Shaymin and I! Say hi, Shaymin!

Shaymin:Hello, everyone! This was an idea that was born of a misconception I had prior to playing Xenoblade for the first time, where I assumed from Shulk's Smash Bros. trailer that he had actually been adopted and raised by the Nopon. From there, discussion arose of how this would affect the rest of Xenoblade and, with a lot of help from KingofZeroX, I was able to put it into story form. I hope you are all enjoying the story so far, and I can't wait to write more of this alternate universe!

KoZ: There you have it folks, from the great lady herself! This was a short prologue to what will surely be a grand adventure! See you guys next time!

REVIEW, FAVORITE, FOLLOW! Pretty please with babby Shulk on top?