Proof that the remaining 10% is worth finding Elysium here.
These are recommendations made by Tropers for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.
You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.
Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.
- Fresh Start
by The Doctor Is Icecube- Recommended by: Discar
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Rex pretty much felt like his life had hit a dead end at age eighteen. He never finished school and was stuck in a low paying job in a city he didn't have the time to get to know, and then to top it all off his apartment introduced a no pets policy so he was forced to find somewhere new to live. He never quite anticipated that it would turn out the way it was. His new house share was full of characters, and those characters were soon to change his life - for better or worse.
- Tags: Alternate Universe, real world
- Paths Divergent by Ajur
- Recommended by: Watashiwa
- Status: Dead; last updated October 2018
- Synopsis: One event can change everything. A single point of divergence can cause ripples and twists that impact the entire world. A canon divergence AU with a catalyst occurring during the Aegis War that explores a different path the story could have taken.
- Tags: Alternate Universe
- Comments: A very promising Elseworld where things are just ever-so-slightly off from canon. Nia's a stowaway instead of a Torna member, Jin isn't even around, Gramps actually dies and becomes a Core Crystal... this fic has an idea and it's running with it.
- Another Chronicle by Other Red
- Recommended by: TheGrayFox
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: A familiar scene - a sealed room on an ancient ship, containing a red sword. But Rex isn't the one to touch it. A sort-of AU where Nia is the Aegis's driver. Some things play out similarly, others not so much, as the world gradually begins to spiral in a slightly different direction.
- Tags: Alternate Universe
- Comments: It's a fairly simple premise, and a lot of events are quite similar to canon, but it's well-written, with Nia in Rex's place providing just enough changes to be potentially interesting.
- The Ol' Switcheroo by CloverCloverClover
- Recommended by: Sniper_Maxter, Valkyr
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: What if Amalthus had awoken Mythra instead of Malos, so Malos joins up with Rex instead? I try hard to make this NOT just a simple retread of what happened in the main game: Many things change, others are expanded on.
- Pairings: Rex/Nia
- Tags: Alternate Universe
- Comments: As the author themselves will tell you, the title absolutely does not indicate the actual tone of the story or the content therein. It's only named such because they couldn't think of a title. What's actually here is both a fresh twist on the original story combined with a deeper exploration of the old characters and world than what even the game often offered. With Pyra and Mythra moved into the primary antagonist position, Nia takes up their role as the primary love interest for Rex and the relationship between them is given much more focus, but the dynamic between them is a far cry from the Rex/Aegis romance of the original story, being much closer to their friendship in the original canon. Malos, the new co-star, is much the same ruthless, macho tough guy with Hidden Depths that he was originally, but now with much more of a heart, and Pyra and Mythra's original personalities reconciled with their new places in the tale creates a very different villain and a slightly different relationship with the members of their version of Torna.
- Read this. Pyra and Mythra make for even more compelling antagonists than Malos did in canon, the author delights in throwing curveballs that none-the-less make sense, and Azurda actually gets to do things.
- Looks Like We're Out of Snacks by Starsoarer
- Recommended by: superpaperpkmn
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: "Hey, brat! Don't even think about touching that!" Rex doesn't resonate with the Aegis, and that made all the difference for someone else. AU, set in the main game.
- Pairings: None
- Tags: Alternate Universe
- Comments: A tale in which Rex doesn't touch Pyra's Aegis Sword, doesn't become the Aegis's Driver, and isn't killed by Jin. Lacking Rex's dead body right in front of her, Pyra instead decides to resonate with another dead body a bit farther away. One frozen in ice after her untimely demise 500 years ago. Naturally, with her death being the linchpin for one of the villains motivations, things get... interesting, to say the least. Spoiler warning for both the main game and the Torna: The Golden Country expansion.
- An Eternal History by Seeker38
- Recommended by: superpaperpkmn
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: "Drivers dying, Titans dying, the Blade just keep on living through it all. It's a never-ending cycle. An eternal history." One change in the far flung past piles endless changes upon each other. Four months before boy was fated to meet girl, that boy awakens a treasure beneath the Cloud Sea. Thus the flow of history begins to move again. What changes in the past led to these events and what will follow? Contains elements of Xenoblade Chronicles 1.
- Pairings: Rex/Nia, Rex/Mythra
- Tags: Alternate Universe
- Comments: What if the Aegis wasn't Rex's first blade? What if, a couple months before getting that fateful job offer, he managed to awaken another blade, one who he came to care a lot about, and who might just change the course of his own history. Likewise, what if a different cast, of a game separated by a universe between them, was present and had goals of their own? Spoiler warning for late game Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and late game Xenoblade Chronicles 1.
- The House That Rex Built by Rozteka
- Recommended by: NT03
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: After saving the world, our heroes Rex, Nia, Pyra, and Mythra have to deal with what comes next in life. Rex wants to build a place for himself while continuing his work as a leader for a mercenary group as well as doing a bit of salvaging on the side. Pyra's gotten into teaching, Mythra's taking steps to work out what she wants to do with a life of peace, and Nia... well, Nia's got a problem: Rex loves Pyra, Pyra loves Rex, no one's quite sure what Mythra loves, Nia loves Rex, thinks Rex only loves her as a friend and her life has conditioned her to not even consider that she might be a bit in love with Pyra or that she might feel the same way about her.
In the midst of them processing their feelings and working out just what they all mean to each other, an opportunity to salvage ancient vessels takes them apart, and things kick off when an enemy force tries to steal what they've rightfully claimed. The first major arc, 'Materials' has just finished detailing those events, and we're about to get on to what everyone really wants: Home building, politics, the perils of employment and finding what comes next in life after you've met god, beaten up another group of people also trying to meet god, blown up god's house, and find yourself treading figurative and literal new ground. - Warning: This fic happens directly after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and is partly based on the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and thus spoilers, references and tie-ins to such will be inevitable.
- Pairing(s): Rex/Pyra/Nia/Mythra (Poly), Mòrag/Bridghid, Zeke/Pandoria
- Comments: An extremely in-depth continuation fic that seeks to answer the many, MANY questions of what could have happened in Alrest between Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, this story goes all over the place with romance, angst, fluff, smut, humour, and occasionally a concoction of all of the above.
- Tags: Post Game, Poly
Add Review- My Driver Academia by Supreme_king_Nero (trope page)
- Recommended by: DinoCam1795
- Status: Ongoing
- Crossover with: My Hero Academia
- Synopsis: After her world was destroyed by her battle against her brother, the Aegis decided to gather up what she could of her world and head for another, where hopefully, she and her fellow blades could live in peace.
Izuku Midoriya, after the worst day of his life, ends up seeing a meteor shower and finds something that will change his life forever. - Pairings: Pyra/Izuku, Mythra/Izuku, Izuku/Nia, Izuku/Momo
- Comments: A very interesting take on the MHA canon by adding Blades from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, with the negative aspects of certain characters (mainly Bakugo and Aizawa) treated more seriously.
