Disclaimer: Nintendo stuff belongs to Nintendo. This message brought to you by the Redundancy Department of Redundancy…department.

LOYALTIES

In the Super Smash Brothers world, fighters were expected to have no loyalty except to themselves.

Not only was there only one fighter to ultimately take the gold in the main tournament, there were numerous staged battles they were expected to perform for the public – both locally and those watching around the universes and from beyond the many mysterious "fourth" walls. The public loved a variety of different kinds of battles. There were the fights that pitted the great heroes of certain worlds against the villains of those worlds as well as those that matched fighters with similar goals and personalities from unconnected worlds against rivals.

By far, one of the most popular spectacles were the stage-battles featuring characters that were friendly to one another, even those that were very close, against each other. Lovers were made to fight against lovers, knights against their ladies, brothers against brothers, and best friends against each other. Many of the newcomer "Smashers" found this to be cruel, but they soon learned that most of the veterans didn't mind it. The old timers enjoyed pleasing the crowds and many of them even enjoyed the fights as a kind of strength-testing friendly fire.

The young angel, Pit, however was nothing but a ball of nerves over the prospect of having to fight his beloved goddess, the Lady Palutena. Master Hand had arranged a stage for them – the Battlefield in Omega Mode – as a practice stage so that he might assess their fighting styles in countering one another. Also, it was to get them used to the idea of fighting as opponents rather than as allies.

During the first few weeks of the Smash festivities, the two were always tag-teaming when together and were particularly reluctant to have it any other way, despite the fact that when Palutena had signed on, she had done so with a flair for "divine intervention" and had expressed a desire to play and to flex her skills. Everyone had expected her to fight Pit long before now, since she was the trollish type who enjoyed causing him a bit of distress for her own amusement on basis one could set a clock to. Her jibes had always been good natured, in the end, however and when the prospect of engaging in an actual rough Smash round with him was brought up; she always changed the subject or sought out a match with Link again. She liked fighting Link.

The audiences of Smash City were demanding a counter-match between the light goddess and the angel, as well as three-way battles including Dark Pit. Palutena had fought Dark Pit without a problem. He enjoyed resisting authority and she enjoyed taunting him with "poor little Pittoo!" People, however, were demanding that the goddess fight her servant, not his rival. They wanted to see who would prevail – the divinity or the devotee.

"Don't worry about it," Dark Pit said, trying to assure his twin as they sat at a table in the cafeteria for the fighters. "You've barely even touched your second hamburger." He downed a piece of salmon sushi and clapped Pit on the shoulder. "It's not so bad. You know the rules of the games."

"Yeah, I know," Pit sighed, putting his chin on his folded arms on the table. "No one actually gets hurt. We feel enough pain to get our gusto up and make it exciting, but wounds are translated to the computer system as percentages so we don't actually harm each other. And if anyone gets finished, they just become a trophy for a little while. I've fought with Samus, Captain Falcon and Ness and I've fought both the Links a few times and we're all fine. I know, I know, everyone tells me there's nothing to worry about… B-bu-but… I can't help it!"

"That's right. I'm pretty sure I'd be cut in half after that last match with that Ike guy, but the safety-system was on and I'm totally fine. I got him back with an electroshock to the face and he's still movin'," and then Dark Pit smiled deviously. "although he is moving a little slower than usual lately."

"But won't she feel it? Just a little bit? This is Lady Palutena we're talking about here! I can't stand the thought of hurting her, even if it's all fake."

"You were alright with whaling on her during the Chaos Kin incident."

"The Chaos Kin arc…" Pit mused, "The reason why no one will let you anywhere near their cars and space ships… or the stables."

"Yes, yes, I'm Mr. Drives Like Crazy. Great to know that my sterling reputation precedes me. Don't change the subject."

"The Chaos Kin thing was different!" Pit insisted. "She'd been invaded… violated… by...by a thing! And the world was in trouble! And people were dying! I had to! The only way to get that creature out of her was to be a little rough! Trust me, if there was any other way… And once Viridi alerted me to it being outside of her, I was very, very careful not to hit her at all!" He sighed deeply. "And I felt terrible for so long after that." The light-angel's expression darkened. "I still feel terrible about it. Smashing is for fun. I can't think of hurting her for fun."

"It's. Not. Real. Pit!" Dark hissed through gritted teeth. "She's beaten me down and laughed at me and I've returned the favor. In fact, if I do say so myself," (at this, Dark Pit puffed out his chest and crossed his arms) she's rather weak on these stages for a goddess. I think the Hands are clipping her powers or something. I've gotten three wins in with her so far and she's only bested me once and that was because I was distracted by one of the background puppies on Living Room stage.

Pit's lips curled into a smile. "You… distracted by a puppy. I didn't know you liked cute things, Pittoo!"

Dark was indignant. "Everyone likes cute things, you idiot. Have you ever noticed how often Samus takes the opportunity to cuddle Pikachu or to give Kirby a hug? I've even seen Ganondorf pause when a kitten shows up on that infernal stage."

"If it was Ganondorf, it's probably because he was hungry and wanted to eat the kitten."

"True, true."

"Hello there," came a sweet, yet very dignified female voice. Zelda and Link pulled up chairs at the angels' table. "Are you okay, Pit?" the princess asked, "You look so anxious."

"Don't you worry," Link quipped, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head, lacing the fingers. "You aren't going up against me tonight. I won't whoop your tail and clawshot you into the dirt."

Zelda smacked him in the arm.

"I am nervous… a little, just a little," Pit confessed. "You two are close. How do you fight each other? How can you stand it?"

"We aren't as close as people think," Link explained, rocking his chair back into a proper, upright position. "Our ancestors were close and maybe some of or descendants and reincarnations will be close. Our pre-incarnations in the first tournaments were close. Right now we're… we're friends. I've sworn myself to serve Zelda, but it's a captain of the guard position."

"I'm the captain of Lady Palutena's guards," Pit said dourly.

Zelda reached over and brushed that lock of his hair that always stuck up and smiled at him tenderly. "What you have is different," she said softly. "Most of Smash City and a lot of the other public around the universes think that Link and I are in love, or that we're siblings or something on that order. Our other incarnations were lovers, sometimes, but in this time and place, we are not. Link is my subject. He is the Hero of my land and a fellow Triforce-holder. We aren't close like lovers or relatives." Zelda laughed, "And he certainly doesn't worship me."

"Aren't you in love with Midna?" Dark Pit asked, looking at Link.

"It's… complicated," Link sighed. "And where did you hear that?"

"I hang out in the Assist Trophy areas when I'm bored. Someone from the main Smashers needs to visit Magnus and Phosphora – and she takes care of my ride. I've talked to Midna a few times. I'm impressed. She's got some of the best sarcasm I've ever heard. I'd probably fall in love if I was interested in that kind of thing. It kind of makes me glad I'm not the only one who has an embarrassing nickname, Mr. Fuzzbutt."

Link glared daggers at Dark Pit. "At least it's not a term for spit, Mr. Pittoo."

"Mr. Forest-Fairy."

Link shuddered at knowing that Dark Pit had apparently met Tingle. "Blapi, or was it Brapi? It sounds like a burp! That's it, I'm gonna start calling you Burp Boy!"

"Can we get back the subject of Pit's battle?" Dark Pit complained.

Link sighed and turned to Pit. Zelda was gently stroking his folded wings, trying to calm him. Pit allowed it because all of the women here seemed to enjoy touching his wings. They found them soft and silky. Also, Zelda's touch was genuinely soothing. "Pit," she said, "We all know that what you and the Goddess Palutena have is special. We can all see that she's kind of like your mom."

"Well… not…entirely…"

"Of course she is," Zelda said, rubbing a wing-arch with her thumb. "She created you, didn't she?"

"My body," Pit replied. "I don't know about my soul. I think I used to be a mortal at some point but I died or something. I was made to be her servant and kind of ascended to the rank of her bodyguard."

Zelda smiled sweetly. "I've talked with her. She definitely thinks of you as 'her boy."

"Momma's boy!" Dark Pit coughed. Link gave him a light smack over the head.

"Pittooey," he said snidely.

"You want to take this into Smash, Master Shortpants?" Dark Pit threatened.

"Be nice to your brother and we won't have to," Link replied.

Dark Pit's wings drooped and he scowled. "I was trying to be encouraging to him before you came along."

"Pit," Zelda said softly, taking her hand off his wings and brushing a bit of hair out of his face, "Everything's going to be okay. To tell you the truth, Link and I really don't like it when we are called to fight each other, but we try to make the best of it. I always feel like I'm betraying him a little when I do lay a hit on him, because he is my subject and because he's been my rescuer, but… when we think of it as practice, I know I'm getting stronger and that he is getting stronger. Magic against swords and material weapons is a very fun setup. You're kind of like that with Lady Palutena, right?"

"Yeah. My bow and swords… the guardian orbitars… Lady Palutena uses the powers of light and holy-magic."

"So, it'll be a fight like that," Link said. "Physics against metaphysics. Your pragmatism against her trickiness. You'll sharpen each other up."

Pit looked at others milling about in the cafeteria. The group of from the Mushroom Kingdom was all together. The angel knew what Mario and Luigi had no problems fighting each other because they were brothers and he knew as well as anyone how brothers were natural-born adversaries. Neither of them had problems fighting Peach or Rosalina because the group was actually a large troupe of actors. Their many games were performance-art, hence why all of the "good guys" enjoyed go-karting with Bowser on weekends because he wasn't really a "bad guy." Kidnap and rescue was a popular recurring theme they played out for adoring audiences everywhere. The stakes were not high like it was in the Hyrule Kingdom, or in Angel Land. The Smash stages were just that to the Mushroom Kingdom players – stages.

The Fire Emblem group, also known as the "Swords Club" – a nickname coined by Link, had their own reasons for fighting one another and testing their strengths. The penguins and puffballs of the land of dreams also had their reasons for mock-war. The animal-space-pilots considered their fights a form of much-desired combat-training.

And then there were the strange alliances here in the Smash program. There was a hunting hound charged to retrieve shot ducks for his masters. Somewhere along the way, he'd paired up with a plucky little duck as an ally. No one knew how that had happened.

Dark Pit complained often about being paired up with Ganondorf for the tag-team exercises. It was apparently, because they were both "dark-natured characters," but Pittoo despised the self-proclaimed King of Evil. It was, in his words, because he had standards. The black-winged angel was proud to not be a gallant knight and moral paragon type. He enjoyed using underhanded battle techniques and was nothing but honest about his self-centeredness. He was, perhaps ironically; "happy" with his generally gloomy and cynical demeanor, but his "darkness" had to do with a love of freedom. He and Ganondorf were both admittedly egotistical, but Dark Pit had no desire to freeze rivers, starve out innocent races and to break entire kingdoms to his will. In fact, the various gods and other beings that liked to do those kinds of things back home were just what Dark Pit loved to kick in the face.

"Hey, Pit, are you ready?"

Pit looked up from his contemplation. "Lady Palutena?"

Zelda gave him one last rub on the wing. "Everything will be fine, trust us."

Pit got up and walked beside his goddess as they made their way to the stage transport. Palutena looked a little worried, herself, but tried to mask it. "If we can pull this off, perhaps well be fighting each other all the time!"

Pit looked down, droop-winged. "I'm going to be saying 'I'm Finished!' an awful lot, aren't I?"

"Now don't say that!" Palutena laughed. "We're here to get stronger together. We can't let anything like the Chaos Kin happen to our world again. Too many lives are at stake."

They were both deeply ashamed of that. Pit's memories were fragmented. He'd finished fighting the Aurum and then he was in a ring. He never learned all of the details over what happened. All he knew was that, somehow, he'd failed to protect Lady Palutena. She'd told him that he was in no way at fault, because she should have been strong enough to fight off the creature. She had done all she could to protect him. From what bits and pieces of the story he'd heard relayed between Palutena and Viridi, Pit had learned that, apparently, that the battle with the possessed Phyrron had left him badly wounded and weak, to the point where Lady Palutena could not heal him right away and that he had to let a certain amount of Nature take over. Viridi was not known for her quick-healing.

According to the story, he'd been doing a victory cheer and a little dance when his goddess had extracted him – and then he'd immediately collapsed before her throne. The damned Chaos Kin hadn't even waited for a fair fight and had gotten to him while he was in bed, asleep and had, in fact, killed him. Lady Palutena's quick thinking insured that his disembodied soul was bound to a magic ring before it could drift to the Underworld or be eaten by the murderer.

"I don't want to see you cold and still again," Lady Palutena whispered, shuddering slightly. "Or undead, with those flat eyes. That won't happen ever again."

Pit stepped up and put a hand on hers. "I don't want to see you turned to stone ever again. That happens a little too often."

"You do realize that we are both being far too serious for being in a game with ninja-frogs, floating puffballs and random food raining down from the sky..."

"This is a fan fiction, isn't it?" Pit replied brightly. "Those are different. Zelda says I'm doing well in learning how to read, but with what I've heard is out there, I'm not sure I really want to, anymore!"

Palutena got a cautious look on her face. "I have a bad feeling about our current author like she's prone to writing…sad…stuff…"

"Link and Zelda said we'll do okay."

Pit smiled as they both were transported onto platforms onto the stage. Pit took his "descent from the sky" entrance while his goddess came through a golden gate. As they squared off, they saw an army of spectators seated behind a glass-like force-field. Most of them were random people who had nothing to do with the program, but Pit gave a small smile and wave to Magnus, who had his feet propped up on the seat in front of him and was munching popcorn.

Plautena took advantage of his distraction and clocked him in the face with the end of her staff.

"Warrgh!" he cried, immediately brining out the guardian orbitars to block. After noticing that the sting didn't last, he got bold. The angel wheeled around and bought out his bow, sending a few light arrows Palutena's way. He knew that they couldn't hurt her too much, being made of her very element.

She made gasps and groans. He dodged a barrage of light-balls after she set an autoreticle on him. Hey, this was fun! His goddess was strong! And cunning! She really could hold her own in a fight!

That didn't stop Pit from splitting his bow, sharpening his blades and saying "Is that all you got?" as a taunt.

Palutena responded in a way designed to embarrass him forever. She planted her staff and spun around it, laughing and showing off her long, shapely legs. Pit could hear Magnus hooting and whistling. Some of the other spectators followed suit. One of them waved paper money.

"Lady Paluteeeenaaaaa!" the angel whined. Palutena responded with a devious laugh. "Distraction is a valuable asset in battle!" she excused herself. She sent another barrage of light-shots his way. Pit launched into the air with the temporary Power of Flight she'd given his wings that he could activate on his own.

"Yaaah!"

They ended up in close-combat, laughing and giving it their all. Palutena's staff slamming into his side, stomach and face really hurt, but the sting didn't last long. Pit's blades spun in a frenzy, slicing through her clothing and skin, leaving small spats of blood that vanished into pixels before they hit the ground.

Pit gave one last thrust with his swords, sure that he'd hit the limit of Palutena's percentage and was about to Smash her off the stage. With a loud CRACK her mirrored shield and armored buckler flew off her arm and clattered to the stage. The angel could hear the goddess cry "Oh no!"

However, she did not fly off the stage in a burst of colored light like so many opponents that had fallen before Pit in past battles. Palutena stood, hunched over, her face contorted in a mask of pain. She gingerly held her left arm with her right. She panted and gasped, the left arm limp and misshapen. She had dropped her staff.

"What…?" Pit asked, staring at her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw stage technicians swarm around the area. He thought he heard something over the loudspeaker spoke in the tones of Master Hand about a "STAGE-SAFETY MALFUNCTION."

Palutena was gasping in disbelief and wincing back tears of pain. She looked up and her eyes locked with Pit's. Her nose was bloody. He noticed a growing bloom of red along the middle of her dress. His jaw hung and he shook his head. The words would not come. He squeaked.

"P…Pit…" the goddess said.

He backed up and then started running.

"Pit, wait!"

Pit launched himself up onto a service-platform, hit the transport button and sent himself to the transport-room. Before anyone could stop him, he was in a blind-run through the upper-floor hallways of the Smash Mansion. He came to an outdoor balcony. The air felt cool on his skin. He just kept running, beneath the light of the moon. He spread his wings and ran for the edge.

Fly, fly, fly…. He just wanted to fly far, far, far away…

He was yanked back hard by a chain that wrapped itself around his middle. It knocked the wind out of him and the young angel was sent sprawling to the ground, landing hard upon the "sacred buns."

Pit looked down at the chain as it loosened. Link.

"Pit!" the voice of Zelda cried. "What has gotten into you?"

Link walked up to him and unwrapped the clawshot-chain. "What were you doing, buddy? Did you forget that your wings won't carry you?"

Pit nodded slowly. "Yeah… kinda."

Zelda gasped. "You weren't… Oh, Pit, no… don't tell me you were…?"

Pit sluggishly stood up. "N-no. I wasn't trying to die. I think I… I kind of forgot that I couldn't… you know, fly without help? I'm sorry, I wasn't really thinking."

"You look very upset," Zelda observed. "What happened?"

Pit was numb. His tongue struggled to roll itself over the words, like had a mouth full of dry oatmeal. "Stage-safety malfunction."

Both Link and Zelda gasped.

"We need to get you some medical attention, Pit." Link said.

"Huh?" the angel asked, "No, I'm fine! It's Lady Palutena! She's… I hurt her! I… I ran…I... I'm such a coward!"

Link crouched down and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Your nose is bloody and it looks like you have some bruises forming on your face. Your left wing's got a little blood on it, too. You are hurt. You don't feel any of it because your adrenaline is up. We need to get you checked out, especially if there was a malfunction on the stage."

"Lady Paluteeeeenaaa..."

"I'm sure she's just fine," Zelda said with her trademark regal gentleness. "The stage help is probably seeing her to the medical wing right now. Besides, she's a goddess. They tend to be resilient. Was she conscious when you started off in a panic?"

Pit's racing heartbeat was beginning to slow and stabilize. With the calm came the pain. He really was beat-up. He tasted blood in his mouth and his right eye hurt. It was starting to swell up a bit – he was having a hard time seeing out of it. He felt the distinct pain of a burn on his wing. Upon realizing the sensation of burn, the poor boy began to panic again. He went to his knees and refused to move.

"Burn…burn…burn," he stammered.

"What in the world? Pit?" Zelda went to her knees beside him.

"Burn on my wing! Burning feathers! They're burning up!"

"No they aren't. Sssh." Zelda took him by the shoulders, deciding that touching his wings at all would not be a good idea right now.

Pit looked up into Zelda's face with saddest expression imaginable. His eyes were hollow, like those of a trusting young dog that had been kicked. "She burned me. Lady Palutena burned me."

"It was a stage-malfunction," Link said, grabbing him by the arm and hefting him up. He needed to get Pit on his feet and moving. His black eye was going to swell shut if it wasn't taken care of quickly. "She did not mean to hurt you. And you didn't mean to hurt her. If you want to take it up with anyone, take it up with the Hands. They're supposed to be keeping tight tabs on this stuff."

The Hylians marched the wounded angel along, back into the mansion and down its halls. The infirmary was on the other side, so they had to go downstairs and through the main hall where everyone did their recreation and socializing. Link was genuinely angry but tried to hide it. Stupid stage-glitches like this were not supposed to happen and to happen to these two was unthinkable. Pit trusted his goddess more than he trusted his patron, Farore. Zelda received the wisdom of Nayru, but it was vague and cryptic and tended to come in dreams. Farore left little tests for him, wanting to breed his courage rather than do anything in the ways of direct nurturing. Pit and Pally's relationship… that was very different. The worshipper had direct contact with this goddess and she treated him like a best friend, or, as discussed earlier at dinner, her own child. They'd had this pact of protecting one another that struck Link as something deeper than a bond between lovers – and far more innocent. In other words, of all the days and all the times for the stages to go wonky, it had to happen to them!

Pit was holding his head up, but he looked gutted.

Dark Pit came running up to them, his face pale and sweaty. "Pit! I've been looking all over for you! Where have you been? Come on! Let's go! Palutena's been asking for you!"

"Asking for me?"

"Of course you dip. Come on." He looked up at Zelda and then at Link. "He didn't try anything stupid, did he?"

"Only trying to fly off the roof. Zelda and I were taking in the moonlight on the balcony. I caught him with my clawshot."

"Pit you featherbrain! Ugh, I don't even have the words right now. Let's go."

That is when Wario, who had been engaged in a belching contest with Kirby and Pac-Man spoke up. "Heh, you fought the pretty little goddess tonight?" he asked. "Doctor Mario brought her through here. She was pretty messed-up. You did a good job of kicking her ass, kid. You're a real badass, you are."

Pit's bruised face went white. Instantly, he grabbed the nearest body to him, which happened to be Link's. He started sobbing into Link's chest. The dumbfounded Hylian very gently hugged him, mindful of his wing-burn. Pit came up for air, wailing, and then sank back down again into the grass-scented tunic.

"Wario!" Zelda gasped.

Dark Pit let out a snarl that would have rivaled Link's if Link still had the ability to transform into a wolf. Immediately, he swept in, grabbed Wario off his chair by his shirt-collar and hissed at him. "You. Me. Reset Bomb Stage. NOW!"

"Eh, heh," the garlic-breathed rival of and fellow actor to Mario said, "Didn't you hear? There's a problem with the computer system on the stages right now. We can't fight unless you want to get hurt for real."

"Like I care," Dark Pit responded. He started dragging Wario to the stairs. "We're going to sneak in. We will fight. And I will force-feed you your motorcycle."

"All right, Angel Cakes, but I think you'll be sorry!"

Dark Pit called back as he and Wario left the room. "Take care of Pit. Tell Lady Palutena I'm busy takin' out the trash!"

"Pit, come on," Link coaxed, peeling the boy from his front. "Oh, your eye's worse now."

Pit responded by spitting up a tooth. He followed with one eye shut and both stinging with tears. Little Mac, who was standing aside in one of the hallways, punched a fist up in the air, seeing Pit's common boxer's injuries as a badge of honor. Pit couldn't help but muster a tiny smile at that.

They entered the infirmary and Peach was there in her nurses' uniform. She guided them to one of the rooms. Palutena sat on a table with her left arm in a sling. Her dress had been changed to a pinkish version of her usual gown. Her eyes lit up in relief for one moment, only to be lit with worry the next. "Pit!"

Link gave her a gallant bow. "Your captain is delivered to you, my lady," he said, "Safe if not whole."

"Thank you, Link… and Zelda," she said with a small nod. "Pit, where on earth have you been? I was worried that you were going to jump off the roof or something in a blind panic!"

"Um… about that, Lady Palutena…" Pit began. Link wore a nervous smile.

Pit immediately fell to both knees in front of the table. "Oh, Lady Palutena! I have wounded you! I am unworthy to be the captain of your guards! I am the worst angel ever! I deserve to scrub latrines forever! After the Centurions' taco night! I deserve… I deserve to be thrown into the Underworld! Again! Do what you will with me, Lady Palutena! I deserve to be executed!"

"No, no, no, Pit!" Palutena gasped. She gently touched him with her good hand. "I'm not going to do any of that to you!" she softly laughed. "You definitely do not deserve to be executed. Master Hand says that something went wrong with the stage system. The protections switched off and so did the limiters. Don't you understand, Pit? I had my full powers as a goddess and didn't even know it!"

Pit looked up. "This means…"

"It means that I could have killed you. Easily."

"Yipe!"

"It also means that you are very strong – stronger than I thought you were." She laughed, a lilting, genuinely joyful laugh, though it was soft. "You gave me a bloody nose, a shallow cut across the stomach and…well, the worst injury is that you broke my arm clean through. I'm using my powers to heal it right now. I should be back to wielding my shield in about three days. Oh, Pit… stop crying now… I'm impressed! You were able to stand against me without me being weakened or possessed and actually get some licks in! I have full confidence that if anything like the Chaos Kin incident happens again, that you'll be able to take on any errant god to protect our world and our people, even me!"

Pit was quiet, looking down. Tears dripped down to the floor.

"Pit…"

Pit started coughing in short spasms that resembled a cat coughing up a furball.

"Pitty-kitty?"

This was a very rarely used nickname that. If asked about it, Lady Palutena might refer you to one of the author's other fan fictions.

Where the tears had been spattering on the tile, there were small spatters of blood.

"Pit!"

Palutena slid off the table and took Pit into her arms, wincing as she moved the injured one. Link and Zelda stood by as the small angel shook and promptly vomited a disturbingly reddish hamburger-and-fries stew onto Palutena's lap. The goddess ran her hands over Pit. She looked up to her "impressive mortal" Link, her face a picture of fear. "Get the doctor!" she demanded. "I can't muster the power for him while I'm healing myself! He has internal injuries!"

"S-s-sorry, Lady Palutena," Pit apologized.

"It's alright," the goddess joked. "I didn't like this dress anyway." She let him cleave to her side. "I knew I shouldn't have hit you so hard. Even when the stage-safety was on… Angels are such fragile things. I kind of forgot. It's like around the volcano…I kept forgetting how flammable you are… and your sandals started to melt."

Pit twitched his wounded wing. "You burned me, Lady Palutena."

The goddess held her head high and away from the boy and began to silently weep.

"Why do you have handcuffs on, Pittoo?"

"Mr. Wario is in worse shape than you are, that's why."

Pit was on his side in a hospital bed. An IV line was hooked up to his left arm. It was not conventional for a patient to be allowed to rest on his side like that, but Pit had wings, which made resting on his back uncomfortable for him most of the time. Upon awakening, the white-winged angel noticed that he was stripped down to his shorts and had a heavy bandage wrapped around his middle.

Dark Pit, who was seated in a chair next to him, rested his shackled wrists on his knees. "The doc had to cut you open, get your workings back together. You're going to be okay. Master Hand let me visit you, but they won't take these stupid things off me yet. I'm on suspension. I'll get to fight again, but not until the gasshole heals up."

"Where's Lady Plautena?" Pit asked, weakly shifting up on his pillows.

"She's been talking to the Hands," Dark Pit replied. He managed to pop his hands out of the shackles and put one on Pit's shoulder.

"Won't you get into trouble?"

"Not if I don't get caught. I'll put them back on before they come for me."

"She's been talking to the Hands?"

"Yeah," Dark Pit replied. "About earlier and the fight setup."

"How long have I been out?" Pit yawned.

"About a day."

Palutena walked in, flexing her previously broken arm. "It healed up quicker than I thought!" she announced. "Good as new!"

"Lady Palutena!" Pit cried, sitting up sharply. He winced. "Ooh… not a good idea..."

"Oh, Pit! So wonderful to see you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!" She shuffled Dark Pit out of the way and gently helped Pit to sit up properly. Dark Pit reassembled his shackles, knowing that the Security Miis would soon be in.

"You're okay, Lady Palutena!"

"As are you, it would seem."

"To tell you the truth, it hurts a little… I feel like I've eaten about ten spicy curries!"

Palutena laughed softly. "Oh, Pit."

"I should be back in shape soon, right?"

"I've already bothered Master Hand to let me create a hot spring. I've also talked with him about other things."

"What other things, Lady Palutena?"

She stroked his hair and his cheek. "Well, we aren't going to be fighting each other anymore."

"Wait… we don't have to fight?"

"Well, other people, but not each other. When you and I are together on a stage, we will be on a tag team, allies."

"All right!"

"Don't get too excited now," Palutena stepped back and gave him a sad smile. "I really wanted us to learn strength against each other… but the stage-accident has shown me that we're both too soft yet. The Hands only granted our exemption because they saw how distressing it was for our hearts."

"Hmmph." Dark Pit muttered. "Master Hand is probably afraid that if the stage malfunctions like that again while you two are fighting, that you'll send a nuclear glam-blaster his way."

"That, too," the goddess replied.

"I'm glad," Pit said, looking down. "It goes against my nature not to protect you."

"Don't worry, little goddess," Dark Pit teased. "I'll still be there to kick your butt."

The three of them laughed.

Ever after, the Goddess of Light and her captain only ever fought together as allies, never as opponents.

(Except in cases where the people beyond the fourth wall would get involved, though some of them, including this author, have a tendency to feel bad about it).

END.

Shadsie, 2014.