The sun was shining in through her window brightly, indicating that she had woken later in the day than she had intended, but none the less, the brightness brought a smile to her face.

Moving to the window, Princess Zelda threw the curtains open, followed by the window, leaning out to look down at the world below. The sun hadn't quite reached the height of it's travel across the sky, so it wasn't quite midday... still plenty of time left for travelling.

She dressed herself in her usual white and purple dress, smoothing down her skirts and fixing her hair before heading down the stairs and out the door into the street outside. People on the streets greeted her in the usual way...

Indeed, everything was as it should be today, wasn't it? The same as yesterday and all the days before it.

Existing as she did in this world, she didn't even seem to mind that every day passed very much the same. They all woke, they did their daily routine, sometimes heading to the Arena for fun to watch some friendly battles. They all went to sleep in the evening, and woke the next morning to do it all over again.

As long as everything remained the same, there was nothing to worry about.

"Good afternoon, Princess." A familiar voice said behind her, making her turn. She offered a bright smile to the young man there, and a polite bow of her head.

"Good afternoon, Link. I seem to have overslept."

"Well, we all know you need your beauty sleep." He said with a friendly grin, and she replied with a laugh. He offered her his arm, and she took it, the two of them wandering down the street towards the market. "It's a nice day."

"Most days here are nice, aren't they?" She asked, looking at him curiously. Link shrugged, then nodded.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right about that."

"Oh! Look at that vendor, and the silk he's selling! It's lovely, isn't it?" Zelda unattached herself from Link and hurried to the kiosk, leaving him to linger where they had been standing, a chuckle escaping him.

"No matter how much time passes, princess, you're always such a child about these things. So excited over little things..." He murmured to himself, looking up at the sunny, cloudless sky again.

"Hello there, Link!" A female voice cried out to him, and he blinked, turning towards the source of it. A young, red haired girl waved cheerfully from a nearby booth, and he rubbed the back of his head slightly before walking towards her, managing a smile.

"Hey... Malon! How's it going?" He asked, trying not to grimace as she hurried out from behind the booth to hug him.

"It's going great! Our sales are through the roof today, and the streets are more crowded than usual, did you notice? I wonder if something's going on..." She tilted her head to the side as she smiled up at him, and he smiled in return, looking over his shoulder at the kiosk where Zelda was still browsing through silk.

"Er... yeah." He offered in an attempt at a reply, and Malon continued to chatter at him. He continued to watch Zelda for a moment, then turned back to look at Malon, nodding at something she had asked him without really hearing what it had been. She continued to talk for another long moment, then a scream from down the street caught his attention, his hand immediatly going to the Master Sword.

"LINK!" Zelda shouted, and without hesitation, he rushed to her side, sword drawn. "Look!"

Down the street, something black and massive stood on the remains of a kiosk, it's head out of proportion with it's body, and something both feline and simian in the way it held itself. Link frowned deeply...

He had never seen a creature such as this before, had he? Then why did it feel so familiar?

"Stay here, I'll get it." He said, hurrying towards the creature with sword and shield ready. Zelda, despite what he had said, hurried along behind him.

"You don't even know what it is! You... " She stopped, staring at the people lying in the street near the creature's feet. "... Link, what's going on? What's wrong with those people? Why aren't they..."

"Why aren't they turning into trophies?" Link finished for her quietly, stopping in his tracks. "Why are they... why are they bleeding? Why are they dying?"

He clenched his jaw, hefting his sword and letting out a shout as he rushed towards the creature standing over the bodies in the street. Zelda shouted for him to stop, but knew it was no use. Link had never been one to listen to her... Especially when people were hurt.

"Damn you, having to play hero." She hissed, closing her eyes and beginning to concentrate.

It wasn't often that he was woken from slumber by the voice of Palutena, but since it was the first thing he heard this morning, Pit found himself coming rather quickly to his senses, rubbing his eyes hastily as he scurried out of his bed.

"Yes, my goddess!" He cried, kneeling at the edge of his bed and averting his eyes as Palutena appeared above him.

"Something terrible is happening, Pit." Her voice was full of concern, and the young angel looked up, frowning. The goddess' face was also riddled with emotion, and she had her arms wrapped about herself in worry. "There are creatures of many types appearing in the lands below. I fear something has changed our world, and the people in it... there are people dying, Pit."

Pit stared up at her in disbelief for a long moment, wetting his lips and continuing to frown. It took him awhile to find his voice, but he finally managed to ask, increduously; "Dying?"

"Yes... these creatures seem to have the ability to destroy the lives of those in this world utterly... I fear this may be the end of us unless we intevene. I need you to go, Pit, go down and help."

"Of course! Right away!"

Palutena smiled gently at him, holding out her hand. In it appeared a double bladed weapon, which he accepted with a gracious thank you, leaping to his feet.

He startled when she reached out a hand, smoothing down his shaggy brown hair, a flush creeping into his cheeks.

"I have faith in you, Pit. Please, be careful." She whispered to him, leaning down to kiss his forehead. The spot her lips touched tingled ever so slightly, and then the goddess' image disappeared, leaving Pit alone in his room.

"I won't let you down." The young angel vowed quietly, moving forward to hurry to the Gates of the Heavens. He tripped over the laces of his sandals, blushing furiously as he scrambled again to his feet, leaning down to lace them up properly. When he was finished, he straightened his toga and hurried to the Gates.

Link was beginning to grow frustrated... he tried to defeat the monster, and many times, struck it down, only to have it reform from a cloud of darkness. Was this creature indestructable? Who would send such a thing!

He looked over when someone moved to join him, his eyes widening in shock and surprise.

"... you..." He muttered, and the figure's eyes turned up slightly as it smiled within the scarf wrapped about its face.

"Let's fight together." The voice was slightly deeper than a normal woman's would be, and its body was feminine without the defining features of a woman, well toned muscles not hidden underneath the skintight fabric that wrapped about its body.

Link stared at Sheik for a moment, then nodded and smiled fondly, rushing forward towards the creature again.

"Hey!" A voice shouted at him from above, and he didn't look up as he began to attack the creature once more, Sheik's whip darting past him to pull the creature's legs out from underneath it. "You idiot, up here! Listen to me! There are THREE of these things... I have a feeling there's a connection between them and unless you destroy all three at the same time, you'll keep fighting forever!" The voice continued, Link looking up at it with irritation on his face.

A small, imp-like creature was floating above him, a half destroyed mask over her face and her arms crossed beneath her breasts in irritation that matched Link's own. He growled softly, batting the creature's flailing tentacles away from himself and leaping back.

"Where are the others? Can you see them from up there?" He shouted back at her, and she nodded, pointing away from herself to where the others were.

"Give me a moment, and I can bring them to you! Keep fighting!" She shouted in reply, closing her eyes. Link nodded, looking towards Sheik, who nodded as well. The two renewed their attack on the beast, giving the imp the time she needed to do whatever it was she was doing.

Pit could see a crowded market below, three dark spots marring the otherwise calm surface, and he narrowed his eyes as he swooped lower. He hovered above one of the dark creatures, taking his weapon in hand and drawing back a glowing blue string, an arrow forming.

He aimed carefully, and just before he let the arrow fly, the creature suddenly dissolved, disappearing. So startled, he accidently let the arrow go anyway, crying out as it darted down towards the ground below.

Luckily, the arrow hit the bare ground and shattered into blue sparks, making him sigh in relief. He looked around again, seeing that all three creatures were now in a large square that served as a market, so he headed in their direction.

Looking more carefully, Pit could see two other figures in the square below, fighting the three creatures valiantly.

"I'm here to help!" he cried triumphantly as he flew down towards them, making the one, a young man in green, look up at him. In the second he stopped attacking, the creature before him took a swipe at him with its black tentacles surrounding its head, so Pit cried out in warning to the boy.

Luckily, the boy was agile enough to flip backwards, out of the way...

The other figure, however, wasn't so lucky. She flew backwards, away from the creatures, crashing through a wooden kiosk sitting nearby and falling rather still amongst the rubble. Both Pit and the boy in green gasped, the young angel turning to the creatures with a growl.

"We have to destroy all three at the same time!" The young man in green shouted up at him, and Pit blinked, looking at the huge creatures.

"... H-how!" He cried back, the man in green shaking his head.

"We've got to figure something out!"

Pit flew up a little ways, then drew another arrow back, getting the right angle on the creatures below. If he could just convince the magical arrow to arc just the right way... he could hit all three at once! But would it be enough to kill them?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl who had been thrown into the kiosk stirring, rolling to her feet out of the rubble but remaining crouched on the ground. The young man in green hadn't noticed this yet, still slashing at the creatures, so Pit nodded, a plan coming into his head. He flew down to the girl, landing beside her and crouching down.

She gazed at him from withing the scarf about her head with red eyes, pain flickering in them, but she managed a nod of greeting.

"Can you move?"

"Of course." She said in a husky voice, standing slowly. He could tell she was wounded, and she pressed her hand briefly to her side before taking a breath and drawing herself into a defensive stance.

"The three of us can do this. If we each take one, we can defeat them at the same time. Can you do that?" Pit hoped she didn't take his question the wrong way... he was concerned for her health, not questioning her obvious abilities. She hesitated, then nodded, making some strange motions in the air.

A glow surrounded her, and she was suddenly holding a golden bow, a gleaming arrow in the string.

"Now?" She asked. Pit turned to look at the creatures, seeing that the other young man had managed to hold them off. He was now looking over his shoulder at the two, nodding at Pit, so the angel grinned, drawing back his own arrow.

"Now!" He cried. The young man in green leapt straight up into the air, holding his sword like a spear pointing straight down as he dropped down again, his sword stabbing into the creature's heart as the other two let their arrows fly.

With a howl, all three creatures dissolved at once, and their black particles, as well as their dark presence, disappated. The people of the village began to emerge from their hiding places, hurrying to gather the injured and the dead and get them out of the streets.

The imp creature floated down to land on the young man in green's shoulder as Pit turned to thank him, but the young man didn't seem to want a thank you...

Instead, he pushed past Pit and dropped to his knees on the ground beside the girl, who had collapsed silently behind them. Pit gasped again, hurrying to join the boy by her side.

"... oh no..."

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself laying in an unfamiliar room, staring up at the ceiling. Beneath her, she could feel something soft... a bed, perhaps, and she spread the hand that lay at her side, touching the blankets beneath her as she groaned, not attempting to open her eyes any wider than they already were.

She felt... awful...

"She's awake!" Someone in the room cried, and there was suddenly a presence by the bed, someone taking her hand.

"Sheik?" Link's soft voice asked, and she turned her head towards the sound of his voice, murmuring his name. "You're alive... that's great!"

"Something makes me wish I wasn't." She managed a wheezy laugh, grimacing and pressing one hand to her side. "Did we do it? Are they dead?"

"They're gone, and no more have shown up around here since. Pit, however, tells me that there may be more of those things out there, in the world. And for a little while, you're not going to be able to use your magic, you took a pretty hard hit out there."

She groaned again, leaning back against the pillows. "So... I'm stuck this way for a bit, hm?" She muttered, and Link made a soft noise of affirmation. "Well, it could be worse."

Ike paused for a long moment on the small path leading through the forest, his senses straining. He could have sworn he heard something moving nearby, but determined it was either just an animal or his imagination.

Putting his heavy sword up against his shoulder, he continued his walk, a slight smile touching his lips as he moved through the forest. It was a nice day... the sun was shining, there were no clouds in the sky, so he had nothing to complain about. He had decided to take a break from his routine, leaving the plains to wander about the forest for once. He was enjoying the shelter from the sun and the coolness of the air here...

Again, a short distance from him, he heard a noise, stopping short once more, his hand tightening around Aether's hilt.

"Who's there?" He called, not too loudly, but still loudly enough to be heard by anything that may have been lurking. "Show yourself!"

If it was an animal, the sound of his voice should frighten it away. If it was something else, he hoped he wouldn't have to use his sword on it.

Moving towards the source of the noise, Ike slowly reached out to part the bushes before him, taking in a slow breath. The scent of smoke and metal reached his nostrils, and he could feel heat radiating from something nearby, his heart beginning to pound. It most certainly wasn't an animal... and whatever it was might now be in danger.

Keeping his sword ready, Ike moved into the clearing of broken trees and vegetation beyond, looking at the wreckage of some sort of ship in front of him. It had crashed through the forest, leaving a trail of destruction until coming to rest against two trees too big to knock down, and the hatch was open and empty.

He almost breathed a sigh of relief... at least whoever it was that had been piloting the ship was out of it now. Of course, the person could possibly have been thrown out of it during the crash, or else jumped... He quickly turned to look around the immediate area, back towards the trail through the forest, but nothing caught his eye, nothing living.

Ike heard another noise similar to the one he had heard before entering the clearing, spinning to face the source of it... now, closer to it, it sounded almost like an animal whining. He moved slowly towards the crashed ship, holding his sword out in front of him, careful not to make any sudden movements, and at last, as he neared the edge of the ship, he saw someone trapped beneath it...

Holding a blaster that was aimed at his face. Teeth bared in a snarl, blood staining his muzzle, the figure had one hand pushing him up as the other clutched the blaster, both arms trembling. The figure's one good eye was narrowed at him, the other eye covered with a strange looking mechanical eyepatch.

"Hold on." Ike said softly. "I can get you out of there."

The figure growled, the arm he held himself up with finally giving out. As he collapsed onto the ground, his ears flattened back and he began to use both hands to attempt to drag himself out from under the ship.

"Stop! You're going to hurt yourself more than you already are..." Ike stared at him for a moment before moving foward to help, curious about the blood and wondering why the person hadn't become a trophy already. He looked at the ship, circling around it and trying to figure out the best way to lift it off of the poor man's legs. He finally settled for grabbing a large log and rolling it over towards the ship. He then rolled a large rock over, placing one end of the log underneath the ship. He put the rock under the log, taking a deep breath.

"I'm going to lift it! Crawl out from under it when you can, alright?" He called out, reaching up to put both hands on the log. Once he had a firm hold in it, he steeled himself, put all of his weight into it, and pulled down.