Xenoblade 3 and FR Timeline

I'm aware that the xc1 party is inside Lucky Seven but what happened to the xc2 gang? Where are they during all this time? Were Shulk and Rex always in Aionios since its birth or is it something else and for how long have they been fighting Alpha? Why did Z choose to work with them specifically and how did the 2 meet? For how long have Matthew and A been travelling together and how many years pass between FR and Xenoblade? Also how long is the timeskip between xc1 & 2 and xc3?