A/N: Uploading this early since I've been having internet issues; hope you enjoy! :)


"…Lady Palutena?" Pit timidly called out, wondering if his connection with the goddess had been cut off. He scanned the skies around him once more for enemies or interferences, but failed to spy anything out of the ordinary. The clouds were as white and unassuming as ever.

"Look out!"

The angel heard the goddess's cry seconds before the sky split apart. The air became alive with sound and light, blasting Pit backwards into a rolling tumble. He fought against the dizziness and tried to get a handle on what was occurring. An ugly black and purple scar marred the skies before him, reminding him all too clearly of his episode with the Chaos Kin. Heart skipping with sudden fear, Pit watched the rift in space anxiously, half-expecting the unearthly creature to crawl out and threaten his goddess once more.

However, an entirely different creature emerged from the rift.

First to come through was a small head at the end of a sinuous long neck—worm-like, but ending in a sharp forward-facing crest. Sharp fangs jutted from its lower jaw, right before a pair of crazed ruby eyes. The creature released a raspy roar before the rest of its full form was revealed: a rose-tinted dragon with thick armor set over its shoulders, sword-like wings, and a thick, powerful tail.

"Watch out!" Palutena warned as the creature charged forward. Pit felt her influence jerk him out of the way before the dragon tore past him, but he couldn't escape the wind whipped up in its wake. For the second time, Pit found himself tumbling head over heels.

"W-what was that thing?" the angel stuttered as soon as he righted himself.

"This isn't good… That was Palkia, the deity of space. And she's in a rampage…"

"Wait, Palkia?! As in…" Pit paused. "Wait, she?!"

"This is no time to fall behind, Pit. You need to stop her—she's headed straight for the Temple!"

"R-right! Er, leave it to me!" Striking a pose, he declared, "It's dragon-slaying time!"

"Heavens no! Don't hurt her! Do you know what effect that could have on the very fabric of space?"

The angel's brave stance faltered. "I'm guessing… it would be bad?"

"Very bad. Let's just try to calm her down. And quickly—the power of flight is running out." She started moving the angel through the air again in pursuit of the outraged dragon.

Pit frowned, preferring problems he could surmount by shooting things out of the air. This situations had more complications than he was sure he could deal with. "How will I do that?"

"I'll equip a new power to your roster—with it, your bow shots should tranquilize Palkia without hurting her. Just be careful not to hit her more than three times, got it?"

"Got it!" To emphasize his readiness, Pit spun his bow in his hand before taking aim at the dragon. Her movement, however, was completely erratic. She squirmed rather than flapped through the air, her wings barely flapping as she sliced through the air like a sword. The first arrow Pit fired overshot his target by a mile.

"Sheesh, Pit—you haven't gotten rusty, have you?"

"She won't stop moving!" the angel grunted with a tone of indignation.

"Focus! You've dealt with worse before."

"I'm trying!" Pit bit his lip in intense concentration before releasing a second arrow.

This time, his projectile found its target; the arrow imbedded itself into the dragon's right flank. Unfortunately, the attack didn't go unnoticed. Palkia stopped her craven flight and snaked her head around to face Pit. She marked him with those baleful red eyes, releasing a terse snort.

"Er, time for a new tactic." Lady Palutena muttered in his head.

"W-what's that?" Pit stammered, unnerved by the dragon's livid glare.

Palkia released another bone-rattling roar before charging towards the angel.

"Try not to get eaten!" said Palutena as she turned the angel around.


The battle with Palkia reminded Pit somewhat of his battle with Hewdraw—except with more blue-plasma dragon-breath blasts and a lot less bickering. Palkia was dangerously fast, as well as completely beyond reason. Palutena guided Pit's flight, but it was up to the angel to dodge the frenzied creature's never-ending onslaught.

"I could really use a fairy-type right about now!" the angel yelped as he rolled under the dragon's glowing claws.

"You know, she's really not that bad. She's actually rather sweet, once you get to know her."

"Sweet?!" Pit exclaimed as a blast of blue dragon fire nearly singed his wings. Somehow, even between the claws and the breath, he just couldn't bring himself to believe his goddess at the moment.

"Yeah. She just has slight… temperament issues, that's all."

Pit merely grunted as he twisted about, taking aim at the dragon once more. As Palkia roared challengingly, he let another arrow fly. For the second time, his aim met its mark, striking the dragon square in the forehead. Palkia's roar was cut off-mid bellow, finally giving the angel some breathing room.

"Oh, ouch…" Palutena grimaced. "She's going to feel that in the morning…"

Honestly, Pit couldn't say he shared her sympathy. He found it hard to feel sorry for anything that seemed bent on turning him into chopped and/or charbroiled liver. He was also having difficulty accepting that this being was indeed Palkia: a creature he had assumed only existed in games. If it—er, she—was real, what else did that mean? What's more, what was she doing here?

Palkia shook off the attack and continued her pursuit. To Pit's relief her movements were noticeably slower, showing that Palutena's power-ups were working. One more hit, and that dragon would be sawing logs.

"Wow," said Pit as he admired his handiwork. "If it takes only three of these arrows to take out a space-bending dragon, then I wonder what it could do on a single Underworld minion… Hey, is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?"

He glanced over his shoulder, wondering if the dragon's breath had singed his wings after all. To his dismay, he could see his wings glowing red with heat.

"You're running out of time," warned Palutena. "You're going to have to end this, or I'll have to pull you out of there."

Pit grunted in acknowledgement. He suspected he would have gotten the job done sooner, if he didn't need to be so careful. Still, he felt no desire to find out what would've happened if something befell the deity of space itself. Dodging another swipe of the claw, the angel took aim once again.

Palkia, however, had more tricks up her sleeve. Holding back, she glared at the boy as the pearls on her shoulders began glowing with intense pink light.

"Uh, oh, Pit—watch out! Here comes her signature move!"

The boy angel nearly dropped his bow as Palutena jerked him to the left. Meanwhile, Palkia's attack reached fruition. The energy stored by the jewels transferred down her arm, which she swung in a swift uppercut. Her claws raked the space before her, ripping it apart and unleashing a blade of pure pink-tinted energy.

"S-spacial Rend!" the boy yelped as the blade rocketed in his direction. He twisted his body into a barrel roll to speed up his goddess's evasive maneuver.

Palkia's attack narrowly missed, but Pit felt new pain flare up in his wings. His time had run out.

"That's it. I'm getting you out of there. The Centurions can—"

"No, wait!" Pit objected, glancing at his opponent. The dragon hung motionless in the air, apparently recharging after the all-out attack. He still had one slim window of opportunity. "Cut off the power of flight!"

"What? I can't just—!"

"Trust me! I can get this last shot!"

The goddess was hesitant, but Pit felt the pain in his wings ebb as she withdrew the power of flight. The sky began slipping away from him as he fell backwards, keeping his eyes on the dragon. Keeping his wings and legs spread out for balance, Pit drew back the ethereal string on his bow. Sluggishly, Palkia nose-dived after him, clearly deluded and weak but still intent on finishing her prey.

When the creature was directly overhead and in his range, Pit released his last arrow.

Palkia bellowed in surprise as it struck her shoulder, but its effect was swift. The dragon fell limp as the last dose of tranquilizer knocked her out. Pit cried out in victory, but soon realized he had a new problem on his hands.

An unconscious dragon was falling on top of him.

"That was your plan?!" Palutena's voice scolded incredulously.

"It sounded better in my head!" Pit screamed out as Palkia's mass descended quickly towards him.

"We really need to work on your critical thinking skills. Lucky for you, I got you covered. Catch!"

Palkia suddenly shimmered, and like a snake shedding its skin the dragon's scales flaked away and scattered in the light. Soon all that was falling towards Pit was a small round object that the angel easily caught.

"A pearl?" He blinked.

"It's a Pokémon thing… I'll explain later. Let's get you back on solid ground, first."

"I won't say no to that…" He didn't feel particularly eager to find out what happened when falling angel met ground.


A/N: Ha-didn't think that was a Heartless, did ya? Nope, but soon we'll be getting into the "world" concepts behind KH logic-and who better to introduce that then the space deity Palkia herself? Well, when she's in her right state of mind. Those darn legendaries-they may be OP'd, but they have ridiculously short tempers. Get on their bad side and they go off the deep end :P But hey, she's got a good excuse this time around, which we'll get into next chapter.

That aside, I'd appreciate any constructive criticisms! Especially since I'm dealing with canon characters. I've been so used to using OCs in Pokemon fanfics that I'm usually not comfortable handling characters that aren't my own. But I'd still like to give it a shot, because this is a story that I'd like to tell :) Thanks for reading!