A/N- I just finished watching The Dark Knight Rises for the second time and fell in love with Bane. So if anything seems familiar between him and Ike, you know where I got a lot of ideas from.

A glimpse into Samus and Ike's not so perfect relationship. The idea of Ike and Pit has been in my head for some time, actually; his rage issues are not completely taken from the movie.

"You're a bit of a rage monster, you know that?"

Ike turned a confused gaze to Samus leaning on the wall next to him. "And why do you say that?"

"I mean, you have your peaceful moments," Samus continued as if Ike had never spoken, "and most of the time I suppose you can be relatively friendly. But deep inside there's this mad monster, waiting for someone to cross the line, just to awaken and be let out."

Ike decided to go with it. "And have you ever seen this beast show its face to the outside world?"

"A few times, actually. You may not even know it, but you let the rage take hold quite often. There's been actually a few incidences that I've refrained from letting you in on, because I know that you'd lose control if I did."

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Hey Samus! What's up, Ike!" Captain Falcon strode around the corner and turned his oblivious grin towards them. "What brings you here?"

"Practice," Ike replied.

"On a sunny morning like this?"

"Yes," Ike said, a slightly pissed look on his face. Samus thought she should intervene.

"Hey Falcon, could you leave us be?" she asked. "We were kind of talking."

"Were you having, like, one of those serious conversations?"

"Falcon. Leave," Ike demanded.

Feeling Ike's gaze on his back all the while, Falcon made his way out of there. Samus knew she could've handled that better. But, above everything, she knew she had just saved Falcon's butt.

Ike turned his serious gaze back to her. "Now. Is there something you're not telling me?"

"There's nothing , Ike," Samus answered, not wanting to tell him about last night. "But I feel like you get angry at the smallest things."

"If you are talking about what Dark Link did to you over the summer—"

"I'm not talking about any of the times when you let go in order to protect me.. I'm talking about when you rage at people's small mistakes, leaving people around you feeling, well, scared."

Ike was silent. Samus knew that his quiet was not a remorseful one, or even a regretful one, but she still had to give it a shot. "You never scare me," Samus reassured him. "Not even when you have your rage moments. But you know that eventually your actions are going to affect the people around you, no matter how much you hate someone. Because, eventually, you're going to push away the people who you do want to stick around, and not just those people that you hate."

She gave him another moment, letting him roll her words over in her mind. She hoped, for her sake, that Ike would try to control his temper, not just around her, but around everybody.

And then, she heard voices coming from down the stairs. Samus cursed. "Speak of the devil…."

Or rather, the angel.

"…. And I was going so fast! You should've seen him, falling down all over the place. Oh, and the times I caught him by surprise. Man, the look on his face was priceless!" The voice was closer now, just around the corner. "After the match, he was so mad! He just didn't expect to be beat by the likes of me, I bet, since I look so—"

The two rounded the corner, but Samus had already known who it would be before she saw him.

"—young." Pit's face changed from one of complete surprise to absolute horror in about half a second when he saw the already disgruntled Ike.

Then suddenly, Pit gave a weak smile, surprising Samus immensely. "Well, at least I'm not the only one who had thoughts of Brawling this morning."

"And what about me?" Meta Knight rumbled beside him.

"Oh Meta, you're always Brawling." Pit's glaring, bright eyed boldness didn't waver, even under Ike's intimidating gaze. "Can we, uh, practice with you guys?" he asked, showing his hopefulness to make amends by the slight ruffle of his wings.

Samus had to give him props for trying. Turning to her boyfriend, she dared to hope that Ike was willing to forgive him and forget about what happened.

But as soon as she saw the unfamiliar look Ike gave the angel next, she knew that it wasn't time for Pit to ask forgiveness,

Ike, looking devilishly at the unfortunate angel, stepped forward casually while Pit shrank visibly backwards. "I don't know," Ike said, inspecting him like a hungry cat would inspect a mouse, "Can you?"

Samus didn't think Pit would say anything more after that, but, surprising her once again, he did. Pit straightened his back defiantly. "Of course," he said, his face set with determination against all logic and reason.

"Well, in that case, you've sealed your fate, little angel." His next words were simple and threatening. "You'll get no sympathy from me."

Pit was doomed.

XXX

Samus knew, from the months they had spent together, that Ike had about three levels to his rage. Sometimes he would get slightly pissed off at something someone did to him, a minor fault that resulted in his brooding silence for hours at time until he went and took it out in Brawl on the CPU's or any other player that was willing to contend with his anger.

That was Level One.

Then there was times where he gets hit by sudden, distressingly gloomy thoughts, thoughts he wouldn't tell anyone, not even Samus. Ike often forced them to take the form of CPU's that were slashed at for hours at a time at the Training Course.

That was Level Two.

Level Three was the stage that rarely occurred, the level that was a direct assault to his pride. Pit had insulted Ike, humiliating him simply by defeating him in Brawl one November afternoon and again before the match by boasting about it. This defeat had caused a dark, moody cloud to hover over his life, a darkness that showed in his eyes for weeks after the incident. Later, the anger had subsided, not because he had forgiven Pit but because Samus had told him to lighten up. So he had pushed it aside, left his anger alone. But pride was an important thing to men like Ike, a treasure that was treasured and never departed from him. So when he saw Pit round the corner, his carefree smile on his face, it was his pride that caused him to ignore Samus' advice and uphold his place as the best Brawler in the mansion. It was his pride that made him forget how to forgive, and latching onto the day the angel who had defeated him on the SSBB Battlefield, the only one who had managed to beat the unbeatable in a span of five minutes.

And now was the time for Pit's unintentional attack to be requited.

The four of them entered the stage, and instantly Pit flew past them to get a higher position off the ground. Ike rushed towards him, his mind bent and driven. It pained her to see her boyfriend this way, morphed into something else entirely that she had never seen before. Because now he was on Level Three, rage from wounded pride. And though she had never seen it before, she knew that in this state of mind Ike was the most dangerous of all, maybe even worse than his fierce protecting side that made her fall for him in the first place.

And that thought scared her.

She knew she could've done more to keep Ike from completely pulverizing Pit. She knew that his rage towards the angel made him no match against the mercenary. But the thought of standing up against Ike was like the idea of going against the world; a biting, scratching, horrible thought that she was more inclined to push away at the moment.

She knew that no one was perfect. Everyone had a secret quality about them that could make people grimace. But reflecting on that day, weeks later, Samus knew she still should've done something, said anything, to prevent Ike from carrying out his wrath.

But she hadn't. She fought Meta Knight, content in ignorance, even though he kept on casting her concerned glances. Even though every time she looked back at the other's fight, she flinched, her sympathy for the angel, and not the mercenary.

Because the safety was on, Ike didn't damage a bone in Pit's body. But when the bell rang and the players shuffled out of the stage door, Samus could see, by the way she tried to catch a glimpse of a now dull eyed Pit, that Ike had succeeded in breaking the angel's spirit, absolutely and irrevocably.