Chapter 3

Leaving up out of lower level, Dark Pit was worried now. Putting through rejection may have another adverse effect, granted he knew she'd never react this way if she was ever rejected, but after the events with Hades he knew how sensitive she was to something like this. While thinking, Dark Pit ascended back to the main entrance, being spotted by Ren shortly after his entrance back.

"Oh, Dark Pit," He kept walking, Ren watched him, "Dark Pit!" Speaking a bit louder, he stopped this time. "What's got you so dazed?" Dark Pit shook his head,

"It's nothing, but what'd you want?"

"Right, well I wanted to tell you to hang here and watch over Cassie, just for a little bit."

"Why?" He tried to sound as normal as possible. He didn't want to give off that something, even as little as it was, was off.

"Why else? She has to stay here with someone and I want to see if any of our other clones exhibit the same commonalities as Sisi does,"

"You mean seeing if she knows a whole bunch about something they shouldn't?" Ren nods,

"On the nose and I know it might be asking a lot of you since you've helped us so much today. But, please, just stay with Cassie until she wants to go home or I return here," Dark Pit nodded,

"Whatever, I'll stay," He smiled,

"If she asks; just tell her where I am!" He nods as Ren started to leave out,

"I'll be sure to..." Ren left out leaving Dark Pit alone once more in the hallway.

"Pittoo!" Pit's voice was loud as it got even closer with his decreasing distance, "Hey, are Sisi and Cassie done talking yet?"

"Why do you wanna know lover boy?" Pit blushed,

"I'm not in love…" He paused, "I just think Sisi's interesting, that's all!" Dark Pit scoffed once more as his voice wasn't convincing in the slightest.

"No they're not, I'm not even sure when they'll actually be done. Cassie sounded like a normal girl for once not talking about blowing something up or seeing some kind of reaction." Pit chuckled,

"I didn't think Cassie could! But it's nice seeing her being this way, it's different huh?"

"Not really…" Pit stared at his double,

"Now you're depressed? What's wrong?" Dark Pit narrowed his eyes,

"You, if you don't get out of my face."

"Come on, I know when my own face is upset. Stop avoiding my question with insults!" Dark Pit wanted to hit him, but he knew eventually this would lead to Palutena hearing and soon she'd work her manipulative words to force him to talk.

"Look, I don't know if Palutena is listening or not, but you better not tell anyone else." Pit stood straight,

"I won't, now come on!" Dark Pit sighed before lowering his voice a bit,

"I was listening in on Cassie and Sisi. They didn't say anything too important, but Sisi told Cassie that I… liked her."

"Well duh," He hit him over his head, "Ow! Well it's not like it's hard to tell, for some reason it's just you and Cassie who don't want to believe it." Dark Pit hated that even Pit knew it, but he went on.

"Just shut it, but Sisi told Cassie that she should tell me how she feels."

"Woah! I knew she was bold but not that bold." Pit paused, "But outside of it being like awkward around you two now, what exactly is the problem?" Dark Pit shut his eyes,

"The problem is that Cassie won't be too happy when I don't respond the same way,"

"Huh? What for? I mean you do love her right?" Dark Pit didn't answer,

"Regardless of how I feel, I don't want to let Cassie get all clouded over that. I like seeing her have fun weather or not I'm there. It's just personal… you wouldn't get it even if I explained."

"Well I think I kind of do; you just like Cassie and you don't want her to change at all. Even if it's just you two being together. She can still experiment and be fun and everything without it being… you and Cassie "together"." Dark Pit was surprised, he was being smart for once. It was odd, "Look, I think if you really like her and you think things will get weird around you two you should tell her that. That way she'll understand that it's just how you two act around another that you don't want to change." It was really weird.

"You're being smart for one… I think whatever Sisi tried to use on you gave you a brain."

"I'll take that as a compliment!" Dark Pit turned to walk off,

"I wouldn't," Pit yelled out to him concerned over his comment once more. But, Pit's advice was thought out, it likely would be better if Dark Pit just told her that instead of trying to find a way to let her down gently.

...

Cassie and Sisi wound up talking for hours, Dark Pit checked up them a few times and left them to be alone for moments longer. But right now, he was ready to get Cassie out of there by force, it was almost like a girl who hadn't seen her best friend in years and they were catching up. Thankfully it didn't lead to that and instead Cassie came out and met him halfway in the foyer.

"Kuro! You stayed?"

"Ren asked me to stay here, he said he wanted to see if any other clones were like Sisi in any way." She nodded,

"Ren always does due diligence, I wish I could thank him for all his hard work." Dark Pit chuckled,

"I don't think he really wants any of that, you're enough of a thanks." Cassie blushed a bit,

"Oh… I-I guess so." She paused, "B-but, I'm sorry for keeping you here for so long, once I get home you can leave, I won't ask for anymore help at least for a little while." Dark Pit nodded to her as they left out of her temple. They were quiet walking out but Dark Pit decided to ask her.

"What were you and Sisi talking about for so long for anyways?" Cassie giggled a bit,

"Nothing, just something about how I'm going to help her put that evil incentive of hers to some good use…" She suddenly let out a gasp,

"What?"

"I can't believe it! I didn't even ask how she knew so much stuff or what she knew." Dark Pit chuckled,

"Way to get off topic Cassie." She rolled her eyes to him,

"Sometimes I wish you just wouldn't respond to me, but this is serious Kuro!" He went over to her,

"I know, but stressing over it won't turn back time. Just come back here tomorrow or something and talk to her her then," Cassie stared at him,

"Yeah," She took a small breath, "I can do that." Dark Pit noticed her odd speech and wondered if something was wrong,

"You know, ever since we got out of Hades's realm whenever we're alone you start acting weird." She hummed,

"How so?"

"I don't know… It's like you're trying to keep yourself from saying or doing something in front of me. You start moving oddly and even your voice changes." Dark Pit knew what he wanted to say, but he wanted her to go halfway and pick it up from there, hopefully this way she'd figure a few things out on her own. He turned to look at her as she touched their chariot the rode in.

"I hadn't notice…" She looked up to him, "K-kuro, can I-I tell you something?" Dark Pit mentally prepared himself, he would just listen to what Pit had said so he stood waiting for her to speak. "Me and Sisi we're talking, as you know, but what we were talking about helped me to reali-" Suddenly she felt light, she stopped talking, her hand slipped from the chariot and she started to fall forward.

"Cassie!" Dark Pit reached out in the same moment grabbing her, her body was heavy as she had passed out, he dropped her to the ground and touched her face. She was strangely cold for having been in a low cramped dungeon with flames burning bright. "Hey… Cassie! Get a grip!" He gently touched her face trying to get her to do anything, she was still breathing but it was low, he barely even noticed she was breathing. Dark Pit stared at her for a moment longer unsure of what to do.

"... Palutena!" Dark Pit screamed out to the goddess, in a matter of seconds she responded.

"What's wrong, Pittoo?"

"Cassie passed out!"

"What? Why?"

"If I knew I wouldn't be calling for your help, just get Pit to help me get her back inside."

"Right…" She called out for Pit, Dark Pit stayed by Cassie's side wondering what was going on. Nothing like this had ever happened before so why now? And because of what? All sorts of things ran through his head, but he tried to stay positive thinking it must have been a freak accident.

Dark Pit hadn't left her side after that, Palutena didn't think it was a good idea for him to stay with him without any sleep or food for as long as he was. Cassie had been asleep for hours now and there wasn't much sign she'd be waking up anytime soon. Dark Pit stared at her wondering what could have been wrong, he shut his eyes…

...

"We have to get Ren so he can see what's wrong with her!" Palutena's worried voice only made Dark Pit worry even more that something serious could be wrong.

"Look, I know Cassie, let's just wait a bit before we tell Ren anything… when we do I'll take responsibility for keeping him of the loop for so long." Palutena had been against any of it, but it wasn't her position to be saying anything when it came to Cassie, she left that to Ren and Dark Pit. So if he wanted to be in the receiving end of a bad conversation Cassie figured Dark Pit knew what he was getting himself into.

"Alright… fine then. But you better be sure about this." Dark Pit nodded,

"I'm sure…"

...

Dark Pit sighed, still regretting a bit of the conversation, what he was hoping for was Cassie waking up, then they could talk about what exactly happened. It hadn't gone that way and things were looking worse by the minute. Palutena had got in touch with Ren, explained to him the current situation, so Dark Pit expected to hear him soon enough, but in the meantime he wanted to see what else he could do for Cassie. He grabbed her hand holding it tightly, she had regained some warmth but she wasn't exactly normal temperature. Still, Dark Pit was happy to see even the slightest improvement on her. While still holding her hand, he thought back to their talk outside. He knew what she was going to say and now more than ever he wanted to hear her say it, say whatever corny thing Sisi taught her to say to him. No matter what, he wanted to hear her say it… say anything. His grip tightened, he was sure if she remembered anything from this it'd be the death grip he had on her hand. He smiled a bit thinking about how she would really react if she felt this… Let go, it hurts! He chuckled to himself a bit, "Like that fall you had week ago was any different?" He had been hoping for her to respond, but as she remained lying there, he frowned once more going back to holding her hand in silence.

"This is the last time I trust you alone with her!" A voice was progressing up the steps. Bursting inside of the room came Ren panting as he approached them, "What happened!"

"I don't know that's why we called you,"

"I knew something went wrong! Even if she was intrigued by something she would have waited and let me sit in or something…" Ren looked as if he was nearly on the verge of breaking down.

"I know, but I'm sure she'll-"

"You can be sure this time…" He paused, "I want to say that same thing but I-I can't," Dark Pit was worried now,

"What do you mean?" Ren glanced over to Cassie as she lay there motionless on the bed, he went over and crouched down taking her hands in his,

"I can't believe I didn't see this coming…" Dark Pit waited, "While I was going through the data of the other clones I noticed something that was conclusive… records, nothing that had been disclosed with anyone expect me, Cassie and the person of interest could know. Some clones knew the exact thing their double was allergic to with no prior knowledge of any kind of allergy. But these were minor things I noted, bigger things like torn ligaments, forever damaged bones, and so on, their clones knew exactly what and how they had happened. But these clones had only been made a few days back so how could know anything? Is the question I asked myself," Ren paused, "I'm not sure myself what we unearthed, but I believe this mirror really does show the truth."

"Of course, just like me and Pit," Ren shook his head,

"No, not like that. Like what I said… I'll give you an example to clarify; when an elderly man thinks he's still in his prime despite having major complications, he denies it over and over and once it finally does something worse, it can't be fixed. Then he has to believe it's true… In this case I'm not sure what the "fatal blow" is for Cassie but I deduced this is why Sisi isn't like our other clones. She's her own person who is slowly taking over Cassie's role." Dark Pit stared at him,

"W-wait, that's not true! Cassie's still healthy and nothing's really wrong with her!"

"She passed out, out of nowhere, before I left her earlier she told me of a splitting headache she had… she went from headache to passing out. Following the natural line of succession, here something worse is bound to happen until she'll have to face the "truth" of her life. That little by little it's ending." It had taken a minute for the words to sink in, knowing Ren, there's no way he'd even think about saying this unless there a possibility of it happening. Dark Pit shook his head, still wanting not to believe it. Ren hadn't moved an inch since he finished speaking,

"... But… there has to be another explanation for this!"

"If there was I would gladly accept it over this one!" Ren shook his head, "Trust me… I know this must be difficult for you to hear but, be glad you get to say Cassie will always missed the one she loved most." He scoffed a bit, "She doesn't even know I'm her brother and yet I still can't do a thing about this… again." Dark Pit listened to him, Ren must have feeling pretty hard knowing this twice now Cassie had the potential to die while on his watch. Dark Pit walked over and stared at Cassie,

"No… I won't let it be like this and you won't either!" Ren looked up, "If you even think Cassie has the chance at living through this then you better find out what's killing her," Ren saw the determination in his eyes, as serious as he was, his request was impossible!

"You realize this would mean I would have to take into account anything she's done for weeks right?" Dark Pit shrugged,

"Would that be a problem?" Ren looked to him, though Dark Pit didn't understand the technical part of their job he understood Ren's determination and knew that if he cared as much as he said he did this would be no problem for him. Ren let out a breath before getting to his feet,

"No, no it wouldn't." Dark Pit smiled a bit, "I'm suppose to look after Cassie and this time I can be sure I'll know what's wrong with her." He rubbed his eyes pushing his hair back, "Thank you, Kuro, for reminding me of what I do best,"