Pit's POV

After at least a half-hour of flying since I left the palace, I landed on some land in order to scan around the area around me. Nothing had changed since I last saw the peaceful landscape of clouds, and it looked pretty normal from where I stood. Taking in a big breath of fresh air, I basked in the warmth of the sunlight, enjoying its rays against my skin. It had been a long time since I had fought anyone or anything after the invasion of the Orcos took place. To be honest, I was anxious to begin fighting again, feeling the adrenaline as I took down my enemies one by one. I had been training every day for something like this come along, and now that day had finally arrived. I felt pumped, excited to begin the fight as soon as I could. For a moment, I thought I would not be able to take on these new creatures that arrived in this world, since I had not fought creatures like this before, but I realized I did not need to worry so much about whether or not I was able to take them on. If Maya and her friends were able to take them down easily, then I could do the same thing. I was not going to chicken out of taking a few of those things.

Besides, this was a war. Any hesitation against an enemy could lead to my death within seconds. I, of all people, should know.

Suddenly, a loud, strange moaning noise erupted from behind me, breaking my chain of thought as soon as it entered my ears. I quickly turned around to spot the same exact ship from the Smash Stadium. I growled as the grip on my weapon tightened. It was the same one that had kidnapped Maya. Since the ship had come this way, I knew I was on the right track. It slowly flew over me as soon as it came, flying into the direction I was looking at before it had arrived. Just like at the stadium, black dots began falling from the ship and landing on the ground around me. My anger began to boil as it slowly began its departure from my home world. I gripped my weapon tightly once more as the black dots began huddling together, creating the same creatures I had seen at the stadium.

'Maya...I'm coming. Don't worry.' I thought as the creatures began making their way toward me. Snapping back to reality, I quickly separated my bow into the two smaller blades I had known so well. I glared at the creatures as I got into my battle stance. "If you creatures did anything to hurt Maya, I'll tear you all apart!" I shouted as I sliced the first few enemies and moved on to the next few standing in my way.

Hayashi's POV

I quietly watched as Pit fought against the creatures from the Smash Stadium, tearing through them as if he had fought them many times before. Syra stood next to me quietly, also watching her friend take on the creatures. Never in my life had seen those kinds of creatures, and I was sure Pit felt the same exact way. He had fought against Medusa's army when all of Angel Land had been in danger and the Orcos when they invaded. He was familiar with those kinds of creatures, but since the new creatures created from nothing but black dots had arrived, I was sure Pit did not know how to take on the strange species that had appeared to the world fairly recently. However, much to my surprise, he seemed to handle himself very well without any help. However, he was my best friend and the leader of Lady Palutena's army. I could not doubt someone who controlled an entire army with an iron fist (as I liked to call it).

After another moment of silence, my gaze slowly made its way over to Syra. She had been silent ever since Pit left the Sky Palace and joined the fight (as well as gone in search of Maya). She looked to be extremely worried about Pit, afraid something bad was going to happen to him, which would possibly result in him being taken away from the both of us just like my fiancé. I could not blame the red haired angel for having such a worried demeanor at the moment. I, too, was worried about Pit myself, even if I knew what kind of person he was. He was strong and able to handle himself when fighting alone. I sighed as I continued to watch her, her worried gaze never wavering from the reflecting pool. I felt bad for her, truly I did. I knew she was busy worrying about Pit, but I was worried about Maya's safety as well as Pit's. I was sure Syra was worried about her too, but since Pit had left, she was worried the same fate would befall him that came upon Maya.

That simple thought suddenly made me think. What were they going to do to Maya? What were they planning now that they had her in their grasp? Did they plan to torture her, or worse, harm her in some way? I shuttered at the thought. It would kill me to know if Maya was going to be harmed. And not just me, but Syra and Pit would be devastated to find out Maya injured by those creatures, Pit especially. He was willing to go out and fight those creatures just to save her and bring her home, only to find they had harmed in some way. I would not be surprised if Syra went into a fit of anger and rage, entering the battle without Lady Palutena's consent. If that had become the case, there was nothing I could do to stop either of them. To be honest, I would not dare to step in their way (well, Syra's way, since Pit had all ready run off in search of Maya), knowing they were doing it for a good cause.

"Hey, Syra, you okay?" I finally asked, breaking the long silence between the both of us. For some reason, I was feeling more worried for Syra at the moment, hoping she was okay. The red haired angel jumped slightly at the sound of my voice before glancing at me, her eyes holding a light glare.

"I'm...I'm fine," she responded. Then, she punched my shoulder lightly out of nowhere. "And don't scare me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I laughed a little and rubbed my slightly sore arm.

"Sorry about that, Syra," I apologized, rubbing the back of my head. "You just had a worried expression on your face, so I wanted to see if you were okay." She shrugged at my words.

"I'll be all right," she said with a small smile. "Besides, I know Pit. He'll be able to get Maya back before we know it!" I returned the smile as she looked back down at the reflecting pool once again.

As soon as it came, though, my smile quickly faded as I stared at her for another brief moment before looking back down at Pit. He had just taken out another one of the creatures and moved on to the next one. However, the creature he had encountered was much different from the other smaller ones. It was much bigger and looked much stronger than the others before it. It was three times bigger than Pit and had huge scythes has its hands as well as its weapons. It had a large round ball as its body, and two smaller pink wheels to help it move from place to place. Other than its large size and mass, its eyes were also yellow, just like the other creatures. I was pretty shocked at the sight the oversized creature, but Pit looked very confident, as if he would be able to destroy it just by staring at it. I could see the rage building in his eyes simply by looking at him from the reflecting pool. Before I knew it, Pit had lunged toward the large creature at full force, weapons blazing. I took a deep breath and let it out.

'Pit, please come back soon,' I thought to myself as I closed my eyes. 'Not only with Maya, but with your life as well.'

Pit's POV

After what felt like hours, I had finally beaten the last of the enemies and I was already panting from the long battle. I was able dodge the large creature I had stood up against minutes ago, but I was cut only once before I killed it for good. Luckily, it could not get in the way of what I set out to do and I could focus on my real mission now. Once the creature was out of the way, my eyes took the skies. I had to look for the ship Maya was currently on, follow it, and figure out a way to get her out of there and bring her back home before anything happened to her. I placed a hand over my eyes, shielding them from the sun as it beat down on me. However, the large ship was nowhere in sight, forcing my hopes to decrease by a small fraction. Suddenly, something else had caught my eye in the distance. It looked familiar, even from where I was standing. I tried to get a closer look, squinting my eyes a bit, before I pointed out that one familiar object: it had a red hat.

"Is that…is that the plumber guy from the stadium? Mario, was it?" I asked myself before flying over to it to get a much closer look. I landed next to it and examined it for a few seconds. My hopes rose as I realized it was, in fact, the plumber guy, named Mario. I smiled, overjoyed to see someone who actually knew Maya and could help me. 'He should be able to help me,' I thought to myself, 'I could even help him as well in the future to repay him.' I thought as I freed him from his trophy prison. After the bright light disappeared completely, he found himself on all fours, dazed for only a few seconds from how long he had been imprisoned. He must have been trying to get up, but waited to find the strength first before attempting to make a move. After a few seconds, he shook his head, moved his hat up a little, and returned to his feet, as if he had never been inside to trophy. As he got to his feet once again, he quickly noticed me standing by.

"You saved me?" He asked. I took notice to his Italian accent as he spoke, but I paid no mind to it. I quickly nodded in response.

"Yes, I did," I said. He nodded, acknowledging who I was.

"Thank you," he said, "I'm-a Mario." I smiled.

"I'm Pit," I spoke. "It's nice to meet you, but I've got a problem. A big one at that!" Mario folded his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow at my words.

"I wish I could a-help you, but I've-a got problems of my own," he told me, obviously thinking of what had happened to him before turning into a statue. Thing was, he did not know the whole story.

"We both have the same problem, here, Mario." I told him. He stared at me in interest as I continued. "Listen, the Smash Stadium is gone,"-his eyes widened-"It wasn't destroyed, but it disappeared into a giant, black sphere. To be honest, I don't really know what happened to it."

"What?" He exclaimed, shocked to hear the news about the stadium. "What a-happened to others? What a-happened to Zelda and Kirby and Maya?"-I cringed at Maya's name-"What a-happened to Peach?"

"Zelda and Kirby were able to make it out of the stadium alive. But Peach and Maya…"-A short pause as I looked at the ground-"Peach was kidnapped by some weird guy in a motorcycle outfit after he turned her into a trophy. He said his name was Wario,"-Mario growled at the name, obviously knowing the guy from somewhere, as I tried to continue-"Not only that, but Maya was kidnapped, too, but she and taken away by that Ancient Minister robot or whatever his name was! I came down here to stop this war, but save her as well. You see, I'm supposed to be her bodyguard and she's getting married in a few days-"

"Married," Mario interrupted, his voice filled with shock. "She's not of age to be getting married, is she?"

"I know that, but it's acceptable where I come from, and besides,"-I shrugged-"she isa princess." Mario shrugged as well before I continued. "Anyways, as her bodyguard, I was supposed to be protecting Maya, since I made a promise to her mother, the Queen of Angel Land, but I wasn't there for her and now she was kidnapped by that giant robot and I don't know what they plan to do with her. I need your help to find her, or I'm afraid something bad will happen to her. I'll help you find Peach, as well. It would be my way returning the favor." After I had finished speaking, Mario looked down at the clouds he was standing, taking in the information I had given to him. He remained silent for a long period of time. He looked to be deep in thought about the whole situation, making sure he had gotten every detail about what was going on.

He seemed to over react about the situation, mainly about Peach. I was not surprised; to him, Peach wasa good enough reason. It seemed Mario and Peach were very close friends, and Mario really cared about her. After all, like Maya, Peach was a princess. Of another kingdom, of course, but still a princess. Mario was probably placed in my position, to protect the princess at all costs. That, or just simply chose to protect because he greatly cared about her safety. Maybe he was Peach's bodyguard in some way. For some reason, as I watched his reaction when he heard about Peach's kidnapping, I felt as though I could relate to him in some way. The way he reacted to the sudden news was fairly close to the way I felt as I watched Maya be taken away. To be honest, maybe his relationship with Peach closely resembled mine with Maya. Not a lot, but very close.

I felt the way Mario did for Peach, except it was towards Maya. Even though we had become good friends in the three days we spent together, I felt as if I hadto protect her, whether I made a promise to someone or not. These past few days really made me feel something, something I never felt toward another girl in my entire life. Honestly, I felt as close to Maya as Mario was to Peach. However, they were much closer to one another than I could ever be with Maya. To be honest, I felt jealous; Mario actually was able to spend as much time as he wanted with Peach and not care about what others thought of it. As for me? I could not. Maya was getting married soon, and once she was married, if we hung out too much, people would assume Maya was a cheater when she was not. I would say Mario and I were the same, vowing to protect the people we cared about greatly, but Mario had a better advantage than I ever could with Maya:

He was a better bodyguard for Peach than I was for Maya, and that was a true statement.

'I wish I could be like that with Maya,' I thought to myself, my face falling a bit. Then, I sensed Mario look up at me, determination filling his face.

"All right," he said. "I'll help you find your,"-a quick pause as he smirked-"girlfriend." My face heated up at the sound of "girlfriend."

"S-she's not my girlfriend! She's only my friend and she's getting married!" I told him. He chuckled.

"I know that," he said, "But it sounds like you care about her more than her so called fiancé." I stared at him, shocked to hear those words come out of his mouth.

"Seriously…?" I asked, a shocked tone in my voice. Mario stared at me in shock, surprised to see I had taken him seriously, before he laughed.

"So it is true! You dolike her!" He said. I glared at him, my face growing darker than before.

"That's funny! She's my friend and I'm her bodyguard! There's n-nothing more to it!" I responded, crossing my arms over my chest and looking away, glaring in a different direction. After our little joking moment, we both became serious, remembering what our objective was. We both nodded to one another, jumping off the cloud we were standing on, hoping to find the ship in time before it was too late to go after it.

Maya's POV

All I could feel at that moment in time was the throbbing of my head. It pounded against my skull like a rasping of a drum. I felt as though hours had gone by since I was shot by the Ancient Minister, but I did not remember what had happened after that. Everything had gone completely blank, and I did not know what had happened to the stadium. However, due to the time limit left on it, I assumed it was destroyed by now. Fear coursed through my veins as I remembered my remaining friends, Zelda and Kirby, who I had left behind. Did they survive the explosion? If so, where were they? What happened to them? Many questions ran through my mind about the two, hoping they were safe, only to have my head throb in pain once more.

'Ouch...' I thought as I slowly opened my eyes. 'What the heck happened...?' I slowly blinked once, my eyes feeling heavy from being knocked out for so long. At that moment, I took notice to the ground moving at an alarmingly fast rate. Confusion filled my face, before I tried to look down even more, only find I was now looking upside down. At that moment, I saw the same black sphere that destroyed the stadium. My eyes widened slightly, only for them to become confused once again. What was it doing here? And why was the ground moving at a fast pace? I rubbed my eyes a little, assuming I was just hallucinating due to my pounding, and oddly lightheaded, headache. After that, I tried to open my eyes once again, and I was successful. Yet, my eyes changed from confused to shock.

To my surprise, the ground really was moving at an alarming rate! And the bomb actually was the same bomb from the stadium!

I blinked several times before attempting to move my head, only to feel dizzy. "How could I be flying? I was knocked out…" I muttered out loud. "But…for how long?" I ponder it for a brief moment, before pushing the question out of my mind. Then, I made an attempt to move around. That was when I felt something around my waist holding me firmly, but gently. My head quickly turned to find a mechanical arm locked around my waist. "How the heck did I get here…and in this position?" I asked myself out loud.

"I'm glad you're finally awake, Princess." A familiar voice spoke. I looked up to find it was the Ancient Minister. He was looking at me with his yellow colored eyes. "I was afraid I might have put you in a coma, but it seems you're all right. That's good." To my surprise, he sounded relieved to find me awake. I tried to smile, but only a small one appeared. He looked back ahead.

"How did I get here?" I asked him.

"I was afraid you would refuse to come with me back at the Smash Stadium," he started to explain. "Unfortunately, I had to use force to bring you with me, so I shot you in order to knock you out and take you out of there before the bomb exploded." My eyes widened with shock.

"So you did destroy the stadium!" I exclaimed. He looked back at me. "Why would you do that? There were innocent people there!"

"It wasn't destroyed like it would've been if a real bomb was left there." He reassured me, earning a confused expression.

"What do you mean by that?" I inquired.

"Well, technically, the bomb I have isn't exactly a bomb. It's actually like a…"-a short pause-"…transporter."

"A transporter?"

"Yes." I looked away from him for a moment, before looking back up at him.

"But if it was a "transporter", where exactly did the stadium go?" He was silent for a moment, before looking back ahead.

"It went to a place called-"

"Maya, hang on! I'm here to save you!" My eyes widened with shock as a familiar voice entered my ears. My head quickly turned towards the ground to find a pair of familiar faces following us. I gasped at the sight before me, before smiling.

"Pit," I exclaimed. "I can't believe you're here!"-I immediately noticed Mario-"And you found Mario!" Not only was I surprised to see Pit chasing after us, but also shocked. He had come all this way from Angel Land, Angel Land, in search of me. I soon began to wonder if Hayashi and Syra were here as well, looking for me along with Pit, but I quickly pushed it out of my mind. If they were, in fact, searching for me as well as fight against those creatures, they would be able to handle themselves. I would see them again soon enough, I hoped, but first I had to get out of there.

After a moment of watching the two, I quickly glanced up at the Ancient Minister. He, too, had noticed them, but simply looked back ahead. I blinked several times at his reaction. I was sure he would do something, but he did not. Nevertheless, I paid no mind to it as I looked back at Pit. I noticed he had turned to Mario and told him something, something I could not hear from the distance. The plumber nodded in response and ran ahead of my bodyguard. In a matter of seconds, Mario leapt into the air high enough to reach me, or so I assumed. I decided to try and help him out a little, by reaching my hand out towards him so he would have a better chance of reaching me. Unfortunately, he missed by only a few centimeters. For a moment, I cursed under my breath, but suddenly, out of nowhere, Pit appeared from behind the plumber, determination swarming in his eyes, as he jumped off from Mario's head, hoping to have a better chance at reaching us. Once again, I attempted to stretch my hand out even more so Pit would have a much better chance at reaching me unlike Mario. However, he was unable to succeed. Instead, his fingertips brushed up against my own.

At that moment, a spark ran through my system. For a split moment, time seemed to slow down drastically. We stared at one another, both reflecting the other's expression. We felt something; it was something neither of us could figure out, but it was something. A strong, powerful emotion ran through our veins. Although I was unable to figure out what he was feeling, I could see in his eyes he was feeling the same way I did. However, the moment did not last as long as I wanted to. He fell back to the ground, landing on his feet, while Mario fell to the ground face first. I remained silent as I watched him look back up at me. His expression was still the same as before, even though the distance between us was still moving farther and farther away. I never took my eyes off of him, not wanting to leave him behind, until he was out of my sight completely.

After staring in the direction in which Pit had come from, I slowly looked down at my hand. For the longest time, a strange sensation graced the tips of my fingers. Not only could I feel he truly was desperate to save me, but there was something he was feeling as well. I could not put my finger on what exactly it was, but it was there. What was it, I began to wonder. What was the emotion he was feeling? And how was able to mirror the emotions I felt the moment our hands touched? Of course, I still did not know what I felt when it happened, but thinking about gave me another headache.

'Maybe,' I thought as a tear streamed down my cheek, 'I'll find out in the near future…I hope…'

Pit's POV

"Ouch…" Mario whined while fixing his hat a bit. "Pit, that-a really hurt." I did not respond to his words. Instead, I simply watched as Maya disappeared from my sight with the Ancient Minister, my hand tingling with a strange sensation.

There was something about what had happened that made me feel…different. I was not exactly sure what it was that I felt when I jumped up to rescue her, and I was sure she felt the same way due to the expression she wore on her face. It matched my own perfectly, so that was one reason I assumed she felt the same way. But what was it? What was the emotion both of us were feeling? A powerful one, that was for sure. But I could not put my finger on what it was. It eventually gave me a headache just thinking about it. After another moment, I slowly looked down at the tingling hand that attempted to save Maya. Whatever I felt at the moment was…very weird and kind of strange. The emotion still lingered long after she disappeared, but like I said, I could not put my finger on what exactly it was. I sighed before making my hand into a fist, determination once again filling my body.

"Pit," Mario spoke, breaking my chain of thought. "Are you okay?" I blinked a few times before glancing at him. Instead of telling him what I was thinking so he would not worry (or tease me again), I faked a smile.

"Yeah," I fibbed. "I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." He stared at me with a suspicious look, but then shrugged it off.

"If-a you say so…" he muttered. I simply nodded.

"Come on," I said to him. "We have to keep moving. We can't lose their trail." Mario nodded as we quickly began sprinting into the direction Maya had gone into. For a moment, I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath and letting it out.

For a split second, I could have sworn I felt a single tear roll down my cheek and onto the ground.