"Drivers dying, Titans dying, the Blade just keep on living through it all. It's a never-ending cycle. An eternal history."
An Eternal History
is a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fanfic by Seeker38, which later incorporates the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 into its setting.
What If? Rex had resonated with another Blade before the Aegis? Four months prior to receiving contact regarding the salvaging contract that would forever change his life, Rex accepted a minor yet well-paying job by a Gormotti nobleman to retrieve a signet ring from the Cloud Sea, and, alongside it, he discovered an active Core Crystal. Taking it with him, he quickly decided to try resonating with it, resulting in the formation of a certain Welsh-accented catgirl...
Named for the above quote by Vandham in the source game, this currently ongoing story explores the cascade of events that result from this and other divergent changes from the canon material.
Warning: While this story does deviate from the main plot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in many aspects, it does contain spoilers for the game in broad strokes, as well as for the first Xenoblade Chronicles.
Tropes featuring within this fanfic:
- Adaptation Origin Connection: As Akhos set up his grand scheme to take revenge on Rex for the death of his sister Patroka, at the hand of Rex's Blade Nia, he discovered to his dismay that, years prior, he had actually been the one responsible for the death of Rex's parents on the Leftherian Archipelago, meaning that the two were technically already even as a result.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Since Nia is Rex's first Blade, they have a close relationship right from the start. Without her connection to Torna, she has no reason to be antagonistic with him. When he dies and she is returned to her core, he later awakens her again and is the experienced Driver to her being a fresh Blade.
- Since Mythra is the one Rex bonds with on the ship instead of Pyra, she has a much better first impression of him. Between him already being an experienced Driver and her not needing to save him from a Stupid Sacrifice, they can form their partnership far easier. The fact that Pyra doesn't quite exist yet probably helps, and Mythra can't shove all her positive emotions off to her.
- All-Loving Hero: During the battle between Rex's party and Torna at the Olethro Ruins, Patroka was killed. In the aftermath, Rex picked up the broken Core Crystal left behind, and carried it with him until he was eventually able to return it to Akhos when they duelled in Leftheria, in order to allow an opportunity for its burial by those who cared for the deceased in question. Even at the very start of the story, he had chosen to attempt resonating with the Core Crystal he acquired from his salvaging job (in spite of the potential risk to his health or life in doing so) not because he wanted the Blade within to assist him with anything, but because he felt that they inherently deserved to be alive.
- Ascended Extra:
- Vess is given a vital role with the protagonists of this story as a mentor figure to Rex and Nia, as compared to being an optional Blade obtained from a series of side quests in the source game. She died during the conflict with Torna at the Olethro Ruins, and, afterwards, Rex deviated from Mythra's mission to reach the World Tree in order to notify her remaining adoptive family from her previous life and to give her a proper burial.
- Adenine and Azami in the original game are Rare Blades that you may potentially never recruit, due to the random nature of the Blade awakening mechanic. Here, they're two of the three Goddesses of Indol under Amalthus' direct command, alongside Haze.
- Due to the Dead: Jin orders Nia's core crystal left with Rex's body as a last sign of respect. He didn't notice Dromarch's core, though, so Patroka takes it and gives it to Malos.
- Hidden Depths: Mythra has a hobby of painting pictures, while Malos prefers to make sketches with charcoal.note For Malos, this symbolically reflects his inability to see the world in anything other than black and white.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Patroka is, as Malos put it, a bitch. She yells at everyone, from her boss to her boyfriend to her brother. But she has a quiet breakdown over her dead Blade after the events of Mythra's awakening, and secretly wonders if Rex might be a good person despite her Fantastic Racism towards humans.
- Mundane Utility: Mythra uses her incredible ether sense, connection to the Blade network, and possibly a bit of future sight to... see if people will successfully resonate with a core crystal. Mor Ardain pays a lot of money to get three new drivers with zero casualties.
- No Ontological Inertia:
- As usual, a Driver dying results in their Blade returning to their core crystal. When Rex is temporarily killed, Nia returns to her core, even though Mythra revives him. When he later awakens her again, she doesn't remember him.
- Discussed between Zenobia and Mythra, when Zenobia suggests that the memory modifications that Adenine had made to various Blades could be resolved by simply defeating the responsible party in combat. Mythra rejects this notion, stating that the problem isn't something active, and stopping the culprit wouldn't do anything for what they had already done.
- Recovery Sequence: A flashback to Nia's first awakening in her current state (having evolved past being a generic common Blade) found her bonded with a bandit who, along with the rest of his crew, had just sacked the town of Torigoth, around the time of the events of the Aegis War. Following Nia's lead, he separated from his compatriots and started rebuilding the town himself, rousing his long-dormant carpentry skills. As time went on, passing travellers decided to help him out, some even choosing to stay there after everything was done. Houses and other buildings were raised, fields were tilled and planted, even a well was established in the middle of the new market square. The arch constructed in the middle of the settlement was named after him: Garagorm.
- Role Swap AU: A few factors from the canon source material diverge in this story and result in various characters taking on other's roles from the original game, such as Mòrag and Niall being Mor Ardain's respective Empress and Special Inquisitor, and Dromarch being awoken as Malos' new Blade after the events on the Ancient Ship. As well as this, Mythra was the Aegis with whom Rex resonated, as Pyra had not yet been instantiated as a personality at that point in this continuity; she would later emerge during the battle at the Olethro Ruins, where Mythra did in the original game. Much later on, it would emerge that Dunban, and not Fiora, had been captured by the Mechon and converted into a Face Unit.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Taken quite seriously as a concept by Tora, who maintained that combat prowess and explosive ordnance were important aspects of 'maidiness'. As such, these elements were incorporated into Poppi's final design during her initial construction.
- Throwing Off the Disability: In this continuity, Rex suffered from deafness as a young child. He was cured of this ailment after he befriended Azami, who was touched enough to have her colleague Adenine examine and heal him.
- Wrong Assumption: Mythra sees Jin with Malos and assumes he's a later incarnation of her friend; she wonders if it's Malos or Patroka who is his Driver. Of course, Jin is actually a Flesh Eater, and thus the exact same Jin that she once knew.
- Wrong Context Magic: Or, more accurately speaking, Wrong Context Minovsky Physics. Ether is present both in Alrest and on the Bionis, but the latter appears to have a much greater concentration of the stuff in its atmosphere. As such, any Blades or Flesh Eaters that make it to the Bionis are able to process Ether at much greater and more efficient outputs, dramatically boosting their abilities while there. For instance, Nia, who was still a Blade (albeit a notably potent healer already), did not have the capacity to control her healing abilities on the cellular level (as she could as a Flesh Eater in the original game) until she was transported to the Bionis. There, her power became great enough to resurrect Dunban from his state of living death as a Mechon Face Unit.
