The palace wasn't normal to any degree, it was more of a laboratory than a palace. Filled with doors that led to multiple different room all with a different backlight, to record rooms and storage room contained various tools (Mainly scientific). Going through the very first door, Cassie had still been behind him pushing ahead, she giggled as she shut the door behind them both and presented the dimmed room to him.
"As you may know, because I am the Goddess of Healing I have to be sure there is enough health in the world, a generous balance on the populous. I see to it that minerals are inside of plants when they grow and produce enough to keep themselves healthy as well as give if they are ever needed. I also make sure natural thing, like water and soil, are filled with the nutrients they also need to remain stable."
"So like in hot springs?" She nods,
"Exactly!" Hearing her explanation, Dark Pit found it strikingly resemblant to someone else he knew.
"By what you said it sounds a lot more like Nature Goddess thing," She frowned deep before speaking in a pouty tone.
"I know, I get that a lot and it's difficult to be very different from her, especially when she's so much more loud and impactful than I am…" He looked at her, she shook her head before turning back up with a smile. "But I try and make an appearance whenever I can!" She walked over and grabbed an experiment one of the men in lab coats was working on, "This is new mineral we're working on, it's not very compatible with anything yet so when Viridi makes a new plant we size it and see if it can share its properties with the mineral." She set it back down, Dark Pit chuckled.
"I'm surprised you and her don't fight with how close your responsibilities are," Cassie shrugged,
"I leave her alone, she doesn't bother me. We're fine as long as no one get's too hot headed," She laughed a bit, "Besides, she's all for the "going green" I don't mind, just as long as people, animals and the world are all healthy!" Cassie turned to exit out of the room, Dark Pit followed as she led him into the door right next to it, this room was still dimmed but just a different backlight color, this time a dark orange. "But this is the fun part of my job, medicine!" Her excitement was strange considering what she had just said,
"It's just pills and liquid, what's so exciting about it?" Behind her something exploded causing Dark Pit to jump a bit, Cassie giggled pointing to it behind her.
"Exactly," She turned facing the explosion waving the smoke out of her face, "What happened?" She asked,
"I'm not sure… I think the carbon reacted, it's strange since it's never done this before now." The chemist spoke,
"What'd you do different?" He turned with a devious smile growing on his features,
"I tried turning it into a gas, looks like that caused it to overreact." She smiled the same,
"That's wonderful! Get it not explode like that and we have ourselves a defense mechanism!" The chemist nodded leaning back over the now blackened beaker. Dark Pit was surprised, she was more insane than he initially pictured. She walked back over to him and hummed at his expression, "What? Never seen a reaction before?"
"Of course I have, I've just never seen people so interested in it."
"What kind of world do you live in?"
"A sane one… as far as sane can get." Cassie smiled to him,
"Well the tours not over! Come on, there's a bunch more to show you!"
By the way she moved the tour along, it didn't seem as if she wanted any "outsiders" in any of the labs, mostly Dark Pit stayed behind her and out of the way, she kept him there and she constantly reminded him to stay behind her. But she put it off as "keeping him safe" away from any popping chemicals and whatnot. But their tour was extensive, ranging from the very bottom all the way to the top, over nearly a hundred doors and they arrived at the very top room. It was large and round inside, along the walls were books lined up and above that was a stain glass roof, the colors ranged and the light that shone through illuminated the room in a variety of colors. Getting inside she let him wander the room getting to the back and resting on a rail, her feet kicked as she spoke to him.
"... and this is the Library, we keep all of our studies as well as older books in here." Dark Pit was amazed to see the amount of books as well as the place looking so kept up. "Welp, that's really all I have to show you," She paused, "My daily life in a nutshell; countless experiments of minerals and new abilities I can give to creatures and people to remain healthy and alive." Dark Pit looked in her direction, he walked over and joined her on the railing. The extent of her work was something he didn't even want to understand, it was serious and even he was tired right now and he did nothing but watch! He found himself sympathizing a bit with her,
"Don't you ever get tired of this?" She shrugged,
"Everyone gets tired of everything they do, obviously when things don't work out… but in my case it's just because I don't think my work is paying off any, it's gotten to the point where yeah, sometimes I wish I could just stop." Seeing her depressed like that was strange,
"Stop being all emo," He jumped down from the rail and stood in front of her, "It's bumming me out," She touched the thin scarf which rested by her forearm. "Look, you said you wanted to stop right?" She nodded,
"But, of course, I'm not being serious-"
"I know, but what exactly did you want to do instead?" She stared at him, finding his question a bit intrusive, but she moved past that and spoke.
"I've always wanted to see how my work is in the real world…"
"What?" She blushed embarrassed by her response,
"I mean like, really getting to see it with my own eyes, the only thing I can do is replicate it but never see out exactly it is suppose to work. Like in real time."
"Wait a second… you do all this work and don't even see how it actually goes?" She shook her head,
"Of course not! I can't leave on my own so there's no actual way for me to get down there, plus my second in command Wizard explained to me that it was better that way, he said the world below wouldn't understand something like a goddess," He nodded,
"Well it's not wrong there, but he is a bit off when it comes it… I mean, if you just go in forest and hills or whatever people will put it off as like they were hallucinating or some kind of myth that they'll write or tell to their kids or something." He paused, "Besides, who cares if anyone sees you, all you have to do is be sure they're not crazy." She looked down,
"Crazy is part of the reason why I exist," She got up, "But if you're willing to take me out I don't think it'd would be in my best interest to turn you down." He smirked a bit, "But how do you expect to get us anywhere? You came here looking for the power of flight which means you have no means of flying at all." He nods,
"I know that, but we do have a Goddess here," She stared at him,
"First you want the complete package now you just want half? You really need to be more decisive," He stared at her, "But… I'll give it to you," She was oddly easy to convince, but he wasn't complaining and nodded to her. She went behind him and touched his wings, as she did this he felt a heat in his back, from where her hands touched to the very tips of his wings it reached until that was all he could feel. She moved from his back, "There, all set," Without any warning he flew up into the air, Cassie threw her head up seeing him hover above her, she lost sight of him before she suddenly felt arms at her back, she grabbed onto Dark Pit and held tightly as she was lifted into the air and out of the palace.
They flew aimlessly for awhile, Dark Pit didn't have the first clew on where to take her so he was just hoping the direction he was going in would lead him to a good enough location. He could see Cassie in his arms, she looked over his shoulder making noises every time they passed something of great height, she moved a bit to speak to him.
"I'm not sure if my heart is beating like this because I'm scared you'll drop me or because this is amazing!"
"Likely the latter," She giggled a bit, Dark Pit decided to let her stand on her own for a bit, he started to descend and found a decently empty area before he started to land. He touched down first before letting her feet find the ground, once they did she pushed off him and gathered herself in front of him. It was nearly as if it was her first time seeing anything outside the palace, her hands reached down to touch the grass below her, she came back up and turned to him.
"I-I can't believe it…"
"What?"
"This… I mean all of this!" She walked over to a tree and touched it breaking a piece of bark off, "This is what I do everyday but I've never noticed how beautiful it is until now." She touched the tree once more almost as if she were apologizing to it before kicking the dirt at her feet up.
"You should really be careful around here," She hummed as she was about to speak she yelped and started kicking her feet wildly, Dark Pit went over and grabbed her stopping her from moving around any further, "Stop," She did as he said before he dropped to his knees and removed a worm from her leg, he tossed it off somewhere and it crawled away from the pair.
"Oh… it was just a worm," Dark Pit found himself laughing, she blushed at this. "What's so funny?"
"You, your work on making "defense mechanisms" but you're scared of a little worm?" She crossed her arms,
"I've never been fans of bugs, even though I do care for their life, I usually leave bugs in the care of my head wizard."
"So much for the experience huh?" She looked to him,
"I know there has to be something you're afraid of," He scoffed turning his head away from her,
"Yeah sure, if you wanna see what it is go and find the pit of Hades that'd be easier to find." Cassie giggled a bit,
"You're scared of something I just know it," She walked off a bit, "Still, bug infested or not, I can't believe the work Viridi must deal with to keep everything so vibrant green… Now I can see why she must take things so seriously." She giggled while Dark Pit made his way over to rest on a tree,
"She's still crazy," Cassie faced him,
"Now I think I remember you," Dark Pit hummed, "When Palutena and Pit came to visit me one day they were telling me about a Mirror of Truth, and that it created a complete mirror image of Pit, I didn't believe it at first…" She paused, "I still kind of don't even now." Dark Pit was a bit confused by her statement, but she moved on by walking further away from him into the forest.
"Hey, don't go to far, I'm not dealing with a dead girl," He heard her laughed before he found her in front of a hot spring. "There's one here…?" He wasn't expecting that he'd actually find one, but seeing it he was somewhat shocked.
"So warm~!" Cassie's hand rested over it she touched the water letting it run over her hands before she lifted a bit in her hands, "Man, I wish a brought something so I can take it back," Dark Pit crouched next to her,
"What for?"
"So I can congratulate the wizard in charge of this beautiful creation!" He nodded,
"You test a lot of their experiments don't you?"
"Yep! Taste, reactions to skin, smells and a few other things."
"You eat failed experiments yet you were lighter than a piece of paper," She stood up,
"First; never comment on a woman's weight, even if it just to tell them their light, and second; of course! We have no weight, not even you until you're on earth. I'd assume I'd be the same but I don't really care." Dark Pit rose as well,
"Well it'll be a big problem if I can't lift you," She shrugged
"You should have been worried about that before then,"
"You should too, you did give me the Power of Flight, so I can just leave you here," She looked to him, she shut her eyes.
"I don't care," She turned back to the hot spring,
"What?"
"I don't care… I have a familiar thought of people telling me things like that, I'm not sure but when you said it, it sounded pretty familiar. That was just the thought that popped up, so I said it," Dark Pit looked at her back, he didn't know what she was talking about, but she sounded pretty serious. Dark Pit crouched again,
"... If you want I could just take you back to this place," She hummed looking to his side face, "I mean to get a sample for you to take back, you know," Cassie hadn't spoke for a moment, but she smiled before nodding.
"Well thank you!" Dark Pit remained silent, she giggled before letting out a small sigh, "We should go and see other places!"
"You know this power will only work for five minutes right? We pretty much wasted the time just getting here," She nods,
"I know, but it doesn't matter,"
"What do you mean it doesn't matter!" She walked to his backside,
"Hold still," She spoke softly, Dark Pit reluctantly listened to her as once more he felt her hands on his wings. The same feeling of warmth overwhelmed him, this time his whole body felt hot and feeling her hands pull away it disappeared as well. "There!" Dark Pit turned to face her,
"What'd you do?" She smiled,
"Since you showed me this beautiful place, offered to help me and listened to me when I told you not to hurt Mika I wanna give you something…" She looked off, "But of course there's nothing really to give you, so I decided it was alright if you got the Power of Flight from me," Dark Pit started at her, she smiled putting her hands behind her back, "So now you can fly for however long you want!" Dark Pit was baffled, he couldn't even speak hearing her words. It wasn't like he wasn't expecting to get it somehow, but for her to just hand it over like candy? Dark Pit regained his senses,
"There's no catch or anything? Not like I'll be your slave forever kind of thing?" She shook her head,
"I have no need for anything you're good at, I'm essentially a scientist, I'm no warrior so why would I need one protecting me?" He shrugged to her, she smiled, "Just take it and don't question it okay?" He felt himself smile a bit,
"You're right, but I really don't wanna have to owe you anything," Once more he grabbed her waist and started to ascend in the air, having the newfound power on his own felt astounding, Cassie held onto him tight as he lifted them past the trees and back up into the sky once more.
"Keep doing that and you won't be able to fly anymore!" He chuckled to her panicked voice,
"I'll try and be more gentle next time," As they flew up in the air Dark Pit had yet to notice Cassie's expression change. As she held on him her face was calm and relaxed, she shut her eyes and put her face near his chest relishing in his sent. It was the one of the very few things that stopped her thoughts, where she could just relax and have her mind settle.