Well, apparently it's only been two months since I upload the first chapter to this. Seriously?
I thought it was way longer because I was working on other stories and the like. Also, I ran into some writer's block at the beginning, so the start of this chapter is pretty bad to me.
Also, I noticed that Hades is a tad bit of an overused villain, so I attempted to limit his involvement for at least a small chunk of the story. And made it so he was stupidly weak. Though I guess that could be chalked up as he just revived himself, he's not going to have much power, huh?
Chapter 2
Palutena teleported them out of the crumbling temple. When Pit realized that he was being teleported, he dashed forward and grabbed onto the body of the nature goddess to ensure that she wouldn't be left behind. A second later, in Palutena's temple, she and Arlon were watching Pit cry over the body with saddened expressions.
"Well, isn't this place just full of joy?" A voice asked sarcastically.
Pit's head snapped up instantly. "Hades," he muttered with uncontained hatred. "Go away."
"What, I finally revive from the dead, and all you do is tell me to go away? Aren't you kind?"
"Unless you plan to tell me why Viridi died, I want you gone!" Pit yelled, on the verge of killing a nearby Centurion, who was desperately attempting to just continue his duties without getting caught up in the nearby drama.
"Isn't the answer obvious?" Hades laughed.
Pit's eyes widened. "You killed her?!"
"Indirectly," Hades replied. "You see, if the planet dies, the souls are just left lying around for me to use. So I sent some troops in to wreak havoc and speed up the progression. Looks like I killed a goddess in the process."
"That explains the size of your army," Palutena joined in. "If it takes a ton of souls to make one monster, and there are only so many souls on one planet, then that means you've been storing up on them for a long time!"
"That took you a long time," Hades muttered. "But you're right. After that first planet died, I had to figure out what to do with the souls that would otherwise be doomed. So I gave them new life, as my minions. I brought them to the new world and just kept them there in a sleep until I felt I needed them. And they just started piling up and becoming restless, and so with them out for blood, mischief-making became one of my prime responsibilities."
Pit stood, a final tear running down his face. "I crushed you once, and I swear on my never-ending life that I'll do it again!" He dashed forward, grabbing the first weapon he saw, Beam Claws, and made a beeline for the door, bursting out of it and diving right downwards, not caring what Palutena did, so long as he killed the Lord of the Underworld again.
"Pit, calm down!" Palutena yelled out to her angel.
"He's devoured souls, which is totally wrong, but killing one of my friends is where I draw the line!" Pit yelled.
"If I might make a suggestion," Arlon spoke to Palutena. "Maybe you should help the young master, even should he fail. Keeping him in Skyworld won't help anything."
Palutena sighed. "Alright then, let's go." She granted Pit the power of flight before he could hit the ground. She moved Pit as fast as possible to the entrance to the Underworld, and skillfully maneuvered him in.
Hades was quick to confront them. "Well, are you that eager to die, Pitty Pat?" Pit didn't speak, only raised his weapons and fired rapidly. Hades just sat there and soaked it up better than a shot absorbing sponge ever could.
"That pathetic toy of yours isn't going to hurt, you know," Hades said. "You're going to have to take out my head and heart again to even get a shot at taking me down."
"That can be arranged!" Dark Pit's voice could be heard from the darkness. Hades turned to look the dark angel before his head was blasted clean off by Dark Pit riding the Lightning Chariot. He steered the chariot back towards his foe and slammed into his chest creating a good sized hole, destroying the chamber that the heart had been resting in.
"Pitto!" Pit yelled as his counterpart swooped in for a final blow, grabbing Pit's arm and dragging him along for the ride.
"I've told you so many times now, don't call me that!" Dark Pit yelled as they rammed through Hades' gut and flew out of the Underworld. They arrived back at Skyworld in no time flat.
As Pit stepped off the chariot, he glanced at Dark Pit. "Why'd you help me?"
"I made a deal with Viridi. I get the Power of Flight from her, and I protect her. Didn't quite work in the end, it looks like. Figured I get back at her murderer anyway," he explained. "I also had to get Phos and Lux out of there. Can't have them stuck in a crumbling temple since Phosphora's out."
Palutena rushed over to them. "Well, that was… anticlimactic."
"I know. I figured that would be a long more… painful," Pit said.
"No, it just hasn't gotten painful yet," Dark Pit pointed out.
"Yet?" Asked the less bright angel.
"Yes, 'yet,'" Dark Pit sighed. As they entered the main room, he pointed to the fountain that allowed the Skyworld dwellers to observe the happenings down below. "The planet is starting to crumble around us without our important little goddess. The humans are killing themselves in a panic as they all are starting to finally realize that Death is inevitable. The animals, oblivious to most things that hardly concern them, can even tell something's incorrect. If nothing's done, Hades is going to re-grow his head and use those souls of the dead that are quickly racking up."
"He's going to do that anyway, though," Pit pointed out in a small moment of intelligence.
"That's true, but I would prefer to not have to deal with that for another couple hundred years at least."
"It would take a couple hundred for him to convert all the souls into monsters, though," Pit said, poking more logic at his dark counterpart's argument.
"You are on fire today," Palutena commented, impressed.
"OK," Dark Pit hissed, unbelievably irritated that Pit was able to poke holes in his logic. "I would prefer to put it off as long as physically possible."
"There you go, now you're finally starting to make sense," Pit teased.
"You say that as though I'm the one who always fails to make sense," Dark Pit growled.
"OK, let's get back on topic before another death occurs. Specifically of the angel variety," Palutena said, butting into the conversation.
Dark Pit took a deep breath to calm himself. "Alright, Palutena, do you know if it's possible to revive a god?"
Palutena thought for a minute. "Possibly. But why do you care so much? I figured that having only a couple hundred years of no fighting would drive you crazy."
"It's less fun if I can't fly," Dark Pit explained. "Last I checked, you can't divide your powers to allow both of us to fly."
"That is true," Palutena nodded. "However, I could figure out how to do that. I've been working on extending the Power of Flight for a while now. No luck yet, but I have almost burned Pit's wings several times," she said with a nervous laugh. "…Anyway, what's your plan?"
Dark Pit shook his head. "I'm not really sure. We need to know first if it's possible to revive gods that can't do so on their own."
"Well, let's figure it out quick, before the whole planet dies," Pit said, gazing intently at the fountain.
"Many if we gathered all the remaining living plants…" Palutena muttered.
Both angels snapped their gazes over to her. "What?" Dark Pit questioned.
"Well, she is… was connected to the Earth, so surrounding her body was a couple hundred pounds worth of plants might revive her," Palutena said, sounding incredibly unsure of herself. "And if all else fails, we could always dump her in the rewind spring and see if that helps anything."
"Well, it's our best bet right now. Might as well give it a shot, right?" Pit said. "I'll get the troops moving."
Five minutes later, all Centurions halted their duties, and were out on the Overworld, searching every area a plant could possibly grow in. As the nature goddess lacked a room of her at Palutena's place, and the goddess herself didn't sleep, (which confused Pit when he realized that Viridi slept) and thus didn't have a bed, Pit's room, which had the comfortable bed in all of Skyworld (at least, that's what he boasts), was currently occupied by the dead goddess and a LOT of plants.
Pit and his dark other were watching the Centurions on their mission with half-hearted interest. Palutena was overseeing the Centurions work, and pointing them in the right direction, and away from any group of crazed humans that looked like they might be a threat to the troops.
About an hour passed, and Pit snapped awake after having dozed off. Initially, he thought he was in the middle of a forest, but the wall he had been leaning up against, as well as the fact that all the plants were in pots, proved that he was still just outside his room.
Slowly, he got up and carefully attempted to not knock over the plants as he tried to get out of the forest. Eventually, he stumbled out, and watched as Dark Pit laughed at him.
"Ha ha," Pit let out a fake laugh, brushing a leaf out of his hair. "I'm not even going to ask why you left me there. What'd I miss?"
Putting on a straight face, Dark Pit responded, "Well, all the living planets are gathered up, your room is about 10 times bigger than before to hold most of them, and it looks like we've only half-succeeded."
"Half?" Pit questioned.
"Well, she doesn't seem to be 'dead' anymore, but she certainly isn't 'alive.'"
Confused by how that works, Pit returned to the forest to poke his head in his room. Palutena, who had apparently made herself intangible to the plants around her, stood by the bed. True to Dark Pit's word, the room had been expanded to at least 10 times its normal size.
"Um, Lady Palutena?" Pit called out to her.
The goddess turned around and laughed slightly at his attempt to move around the area without smacking into anything. Taking pity on him, she made him intangible as well.
"Thanks," Pit laughed. "So… how's it going over here? Pitto said that she's not exactly alive, nor dead."
Palutena nodded. "Pretty much. Her body seems to have revived, but it's almost like she missing her soul."
"Gods have souls?" Pit questioned.
"Yeah, every living being has one," Palutena answered.
"Then there's our problem!" Pit yelled. "It's taken us a good couple hours to get this far, her soul's probably half-way to the Underworld by now!"
Palutena thought for a second before walking over to the nearby wall and slamming her head against it. "Thank you Pit. You are probably the most logical person in Skyworld today. Come on." With that, she walked out the room, Pit in tow.
Dark Pit looked up at them. "So, anything new?"
Palutena sighed. "Yes, Pit's being logical."
"Oh no, the world's going to end!" Dark Pit yelled sarcastically. After a second of thought, he said, "Oh wait, it already is…"
"Anyway… Pit realized something important. We can't revive Viridi, because her soul isn't here."
Dark Pit stared blankly for a couple seconds, before yelling, "Are you kidding?! Why are you just now realizing this? We have to get that soul back before Hades gets a hold of it!"
"Too late!" The aforementioned god of the underworld yelled merrily, popping into the conversation. "You know, she was a powerful one. Just look at what she created, without any other souls."
A monster was teleported directly into the room. "ORNE!" Pit yelled in a panic as creepy 8-bit style music started to play from nowhere. The monster started to chase the poor angel around the room.
"You know, it's actually rather surprising. I expected nothing better than a monoeye for a singular, only semi-powerful soul like hers. Imagine what sort of creature could be created with pretty Palutena's soul."
"You are sick, Hades," Dark Pit informed the cruel god as they watched Pit run away from the Orne in a panic.
"Indeed," the god agreed easily.
Meanwhile, while Dark Pit and Hades were chatting away, Pit and Palutena were attempting to deal with the Orne. "The Arrows of Light would be pretty useful right now!" Pit yelled.
"Yes, they would," Palutena agreed. "However, even if they were still around, there would be no guarantee that they wouldn't damage Viridi's soul, so you couldn't use them anyway."
Pit ducked before the Orne could chomp of his head. "Then what do we do? One way or another, even if we can't save the Earth, there's still an Orne in your temple! I'm not dodging this thing every time I walk out of my room!"
"Just give me a minute!" Palutena yelled, slightly irritated.
"I don't think I have a minute before it catches me!" Pit whined. Right before the fire-covered skull could catch, and therefore one-hit KO, the angel, the sound of a single shot being fired rang throughout the room. The Orne paused, turning to look at the offender.
Dark Pit lowered his staff. "Hey, it's no fun to pick on a worn out enemy. Either kill them quickly, or go after someone else. At the moment, that would be me."
The Orne glared at the dark angel, and received an equally evil glare back. The Underworld creature lunged for its new target, who nimbly dodged.
Seeing that the enemy was preoccupied, Pit crawled away from the battlefield. Sitting beside his goddess, he asked, "What are we going to do?"
"Not die," she offered helpfully.
"Wow, good job figuring that out, genius!" Dark Pit yelled across the battlefield. "Tomorrow we teach you 'truck!' Now do something useful and figure out what to do!"
"Hey smart aleck, I'm trying!" Palutena shot back.
Pit looked at Palutena, then to his twin. "'Tomorrow we teach you 'truck'? What does that mean?"
"We'll tell you later!" Both of them yelled.
Coming up with a plan, Palutena conjured up an arrow, and began to enchant it. Noticing the arrow, and knowing the weapon necessary to shoot it, Pit dodged the Orne and got to the Arm's Altar, grabbing his Palutena Bow and running back, almost running into Dark Pit as he ran away from the Orne.
"So what's the plan?" Pit asked the goddess.
Palutena handed Pit the enchanted arrow. Pit took the arrow and set it in place. "You have one shot," Palutena informed him. "As soon as it destroys the Orne, Pitto, you have to grab the soul and shove it back into Viridi's body."
Dark Pit surprisingly didn't complain about the annoying name, and flashed them a thumbs up as he passed by them.
"Hey, Orne, over here!" Pit yelled to the Underworld monster, gaining its attention. Pit brought up his bow, aiming for the Orne as it neared him
"Like I'd let you do that!" The Lord of the Underworld yelled, sending in 10 monoliths to block the shot.
Pit growled in annoyance, and dashed to the other side of the wall the blocks had created. They followed him, however. Pit was pretty fed up with this by now, and he chucked the arrow to Dark Pit, who looked at him quizzically, but figured he should just go with it, and ran into the Arm's Altar to grab himself a bow. With that, Hades ordered the monoliths to follow Dark Pit.
Dark Pit noticed this instantly, and smirked. He activated a Super Speed power that he must have grabbed from the Arm's Altar while he was in there and started running in a circle. He was a blur as he yelled, "You know something? I could give the arrow to Pit, or I could keep it! I'm running more than fast enough to get past the monoliths, and if I give it to Pit, you won't know until it's too late!"
Hades growled in annoyance and split the wall into two, one stationed in front of Pit, ensuring that he wasn't a threat. The other was waiting for Dark Pit to stop.
"Wrong!" Dark Pit taunted as he handed his bow and the arrow to Palutena, who didn't hesitate to shoot it before Hades figured it out.
Hades yelled in annoyance loud enough to almost cause everyone in the room to go deaf as the arrow pieced the skull, a lone soul popping out.
"Get that soul!" Palutena commanded. Both angels leapt into action, dodging the monoliths.
Dark Pit reached it first and grabbed a hold of it. "So how do we shove this back into her?" He asked.
"…I'm not sure," Palutena admitted. "But the soul generally resides in the heart, shove it there and hope for the best."
Dark Pit raised an eyebrow and said, "Right. Come on, be serious here."
"I am," Palutena replied, shoving him into the forest surrounding Pit's room.
Pit rushed into the room, finding his twin rather violently attempting to shove the soul into the body. The soul didn't seem to fancy the idea of getting pushed back into a previous body, though, hence why the dark angel was violently shoving it.
Finally, it slipped in. Viridi, finally revived, attempted to jump up, but Dark Pit's hands were still in place from when he had pushed her soul back into her heart, and thus she couldn't do so.
Pit smiled happily at seeing her alive and jumped forward, knocking over numerous plants in the process. "You're alive!" He yelled.
In response, the revived goddess cringed. "Must you yell?"
"Sorry," Pit apologized in a low whisper.
Before the angels could celebrate, Palutena's voice rang out from just outside the room. "Sorry, I need you over here, now, Pit!"
"What's going on?" Viridi asked Dark Pit as she watched Pit rush out.
"Well, since I'm apparently not required to accompany my twin, I'll tell you. It's take a while though, so get ready…" Dark Pit responded, seating himself on the edge of the bed.
And the next chapter should be out sooner than this one, with any particular luck.
Also, please inform me if I make any errors, or if I can improve my writing in any way!
Thank you to the person who went under the name 'error report' that informed me that the line "Sorry, I need you over here, now, Pit!" was incorrect, missing the 'you.'