Written for my friend Curimuch, because fic might not make everything better but it helps.
Please not that I haven't actually played the game yet, though I've watched all of it. Canon corrections are welcome.
Four Times Dark Pit Saved Pit's Ass (and the one time Pit did)
The first time Dark Pit saves Pit, it's entirely by accident.
He hadn't planned to help him, this double who wasn't a double after all (and what did that make him? A shadow? A clone?), the only thing on his mind had been to take down that poor excuse for a goddess who thought she could control him, and use her power to buy his own freedom. But when Pit had tripped while trying to dodge her and she had been about to deliver a finishing blow, he'd shot her down from behind, giving Pit a chance to get back on his feet.
Of course, that meant that they were all in his debt as far as he was concerned, and Pandora's power was rightfully his.
Not that he wouldn't have taken it anyway.
The second time he saves Pit, they haven't seen each other for three years.
Of course, hehas been aware of Pit, stuck in a cold, dead body while his mind caught echoes of what Pit was going through. But Pit himself had been a special kind of unconscious for most of that time, his soul asleep in that ring of his—and really, who let his soul get chucked into a ring? Pit really needed to shape up his game.
(the one time Pit saves him, he cries out for help without even meaning to, without even wanting to, and with the weird certainty that Pit will come, despite his conscious brain telling itself that there's no real reason for him to. He is mildy angry at himself about it, later, for that break in his facade, that involuntary show of trust. But Pit does, jumps after him and burns himself up, straining and screaming and not giving up until he's grabbed his hand, pulled him away from the Chaos Kin, and Viridi warps them back to Palutena.
The one time Pit saves him, it's completely deliberate and disinterested, and it makes him somewhat angry, for making him indebted, for making him feel)
The third time he saves Pit, he has a debt to pay off and too many meddlesome gods looking over his shoulder.
And they are loud, so loud, the whole bunch of them, and if he had more strength, a better life insurance and fewer urgent matters on his hands, he would go punch a hole through a good number of them. For the sake of the world, of course, but also because it would feel so good.
Hades in particular wins a prize for obnoxiousness. He makes a note of that for later. If Pit doesn't eventually give him what he has coming, then maybe he will do it himself.
He doesn't have to carry Pit, thankfully—that would really have been overdoing the dramatic, not to mention a pain in the ass with all the underworld mooks he has to plow through—but it still feels like he's carrying his life with him. And in a way, he is. Him being there, his own life is proof that Pit is hanging on, and he intends to make the best of it.
When he dips Pit's wings into the spring, warmth and strength spread into him, as if Pit's lifeforce grows and overflows into his own body. He decides they're even and turns to leave before Pit can make an embarassing scene.
The real pain in the ass? That's Pandora.
He liked flying.
The fourth time he saves Pit, he does so with a dramatic entrance on a blazing chariot (he's getting the hang of this).
And he should have known it was Hades again, because really, when wasn't Hades fucking with something or someone.
Or more accurately, when wasn't Pit sent off to deal with someone, and with the war going on that someone had a very high chance of being Hades.
The scarier part is that he can't feel him, and he's wished he could be rid of that awareness of Pit for a long time but now that it's happening it feels awkward and somewhat lonely—and with this situation? Worrying and annoying. How is he supposed to keep his stupid wings out of trouble if he can't even find him?
He swoops in when he finally sees a blast somewhere in Hades's chest, bursts through and grabs Pit like a hero saving an innocent girl—the guy's a dork, surely he'll recognise the difference. Flustering him would be a nice little bonus to drilling holes through Hades and indirectly saving his own life.
But Pit is still shaken from the ordeal, mumbling a few mocking sentences in Palutena's tone, and he doesn't have the heart to harass him.
Instead, he accepts his apology and thanks, and leaves him to his godesses to be pampered and soothed.
He knows he'll be back, will have his back, so there's no point in lazing around, is there? In the meantime? He has a life to lead.