A/N: This one finally reveals what the hands' problem is. This is the one you're been waiting very long for, so enjoy the chapter! I'm sorry it's so long, but there was a lot to fit in and I had a massive writer's block. Please enjoy it regardless!

This chapter was also beta read by Byoshi. Thanks!

-- Chapter 4: The Bizarre Truth --

"Never really thought this mansion would have a final day." Captain Falcon flashed a grim smile at Samus walking in time with him down the corridor. "It can't all be bad though. We'll see each other again, right?" He brought her hands to his face.

"You wouldn't know where to find me. When this mansion goes, I'll be roaming once again," she retorted immediately.

They passed the entrance to Master Hand's office, then the bronze guardian near it. Samus prised her fingers from Falcon's and gently let them rest on the butt of her gun. As she did so, she gave a thumbs-up to the silhouettes seated in the unicorn's shadow, discreet in this gesture so that Falcon wouldn't notice.

Falcon's face fell. "Our worlds are virtually the same. I want to show you everything in Mute City there that's worth seeing. Just the two of us."

"mute City doesn't interest me," she remarked coldly, opening one of the doors to the hall. She looked round the hall, where people were either having breakfast or just talking. She could only catch snippets of their conversations, but it was enough.

"It would be good to return to my friends—"

"I want to get back to normal work—"

Falcon turned to Samus. "My reason was because I wanted to spend more time with you. And by returning to our worlds, we can know more about each other without Smash matches and so many people getting in the way." He smiled hesitantly, waiting for her response.

But she couldn't reply so readily this time. Somehow, Falcon's words had made her uncertain of what to think now. She had no real home to return to, but he was practically dangling his in front of her. Maybe the Mansion's close wouldn't be so bad if she left with Falcon rather than leaving for that familiar world of nothingness.

Before she could answer, there was an ominous explosion and the glorious ceiling caved in. The elaborate chandeliers crashed down and screams could be heard over the tremendous noise. She thought she could hear Falcon calling her name, but the dust was blocking her view so she couldn't get to him even if she tried.

"I'll get Master Hand!" Samus spluttered. She had no idea whether Falcon had heard, but she hoped he did. She crawled her way out of the debris back to the hall, where someone offered their hand to her. She swatted it away irritably. It wasn't just because she detested chivalry, but also because she knew whose hand it was.

"You might as well blow up Master Hand's front door, since I don't think he heard," Samus snapped as her eyes met Snake's.

Snake gave a light hearted shrug. "I recall you asking for something to occupy Master Hand long enough to put our plan into motion?"

Samus got up to her feet and rolled her eyes at Snake. "So you blow up a massive bomb right by Master Hand's office? The plan was to bomb the wall or something, not have the ceiling fall on our heads! You've probably injured someone! You're such an idiot!" She pointed into the hall. "If someone's buried in there, it's all your fault. Now do something about it."

Without waiting for Snake to reply, she ran down the corridor to get Master Hand. She smiled to herself. Everything was going according to plan.

The corridor was silent and not a single Smasher was in sight. The candles which burned fiercely the previous night had been snuffed out as sunlight poured through the windows. The late morning was welcoming for some, but for some Smashers, it was one they wished had never come.

This very group of people was hunched in the corner beside a bronze statue of a unicorn, fighting for room. The shadow it cast wasn't enough to hide them, so the three people sitting there were simply a mess of limbs.

"How long has it been since Samus gave the sign…? Ow! Can't you keep that spike away from me? If my arms weren't so stuck, I'd gladly give you more room," one voice hissed.

"It's not my fault I can't see!" another snapped back. "Ganondorf's suffocating me with his cloak!"

"Shut it, or else I'll suffocate you with my bare hands," hissed the final voice. "Here comes Samus. Now keep it down!" They shrank back into the shadows simultaneously. The sound of Samus' hurried footsteps grew louder, but she was too busy rapping on Master Hand's door to notice a pair of trainers sticking out from behind the statue.

"Master Hand! We have trouble!" Samus yelled, banging on the door so hard it was a wonder it was still standing. The door suddenly flung open and Master Hand whooshed out into the corridor.

"What kind of trouble is it, Samus? Lead the way." There was the sound of the heavy walnut door closing, then the ringing echoes of boots and jangling equipment.

Lucas poked his head round the statue just in time to see the pair turn the corner. "All clear!"

Lucas was soon flattened as Ganondorf crawled his way out, trying to detangle himself from the mess. Seconds passed and Lucario fell flat on his face. Ganondorf was the first to stand up.

"Finally!" he commented, taking a deep breath of relief. "Snake sure took his time. How long does it take to set up just a few explosives and trigger them?" Ganondorf dusted down his sleeves over Lucario. Lucario didn't like it, regardless of it possibly being an overlook on Ganondorf's part. He snarled furiously as he got up, eyeing Ganondorf with dying patience.

The Gerudo didn't pay any attention, but followed Lucas instead to the Hands' headquarters. Lucario followed and reluctantly, stuck to the plan. He closed his eyes, the black appendages flying out and fluttering slightly as he used his Wave to see through the door.

"It's fine," he murmured. Ganondorf rested a hand on the handle and pushed the door open without knocking. Lucas snuck into the room afterwards, Lucario following once he had checked the corridor was empty.

They had only taken a few steps in before they realised there was something wrong.

Crazy Hand was humming as he dusted the paintings on the wall. The artefacts in the room, regardless of it being the Hands' last day too, were left exactly as they were yesterday. The room itself seemed to have been spring cleaned, as each shiny surface seemed to jump out at the three, shinier than ever.

Ganondorf fired a glare at Lucario. "You said it was fine. What, your aura isn't a hundred percent accurate?"

The Pokemon gave a nonchalant shrug, replying, "He's not a terrorist." Without waiting for Ganondorf's next words, he approached Crazy Hand. "What are you doing?"

Crazy turned round, going rigid as he saw the guests. He hastily dropped his duster and in an attempt to steady himself, he fell flat onto the floor. Lucario tapped him with a paw.

"You scared me, the whole lot of you." Crazy got up, testing each finger gingerly, as if he had fallen sixty floors. "You do know it's rude to interrupt the cleaner's work, no?"

Lucario nodded his head instinctively before shaking his head at the 'no' at the end. He got very confused and decided to give up altogether with a wave of a paw.

Crazy Hand continued. "You're still pursuing what's the cause of this closure, no? I must warn you though, I don't think you will be able to handle it," the hand advised seriously. Then, he snickered. "Handle! Get it? Hand-le!"

The three looked at each other hesitantly. Joke aside, was it a rash action to delve into something a bit too unknown? Did they really want to know the true meaning of the sudden announcement? Slowly, each member came to the same conclusion.

Suddenly, Crazy Hand slammed himself onto the floor several times excitedly. "Attention tourists!" he called to the already-listening Smashers. "We have a lot to see, a lot to see, so we can't possibly waste time! Stick together now and don't get lost! I won't be to blame if you do!"

The three followed Crazy Hand nervously to the far end of the room where the large hand painting was. It was very colourful with the aimless dabs of paint, and Ganondorf could tell it was old by the curling corners of the paper.

"You and Master did this," Ganondorf mused, looking at each different aspect of the painting. "Master told me it was decades ago."

Crazy floated up to the picture to observe it closer. "Decades ago, he said? Hah!" he said contemptuously. "Master's losing his memory. How terrible." The Smashers watched him drift back down to the floor and drum his fingers. "We did this together centuries ago, way back when I was thirteen and he was seventeen. You might think we were too old for something like this."

Lucario smiled as he turned his attention back to the painting. "Is this a childhood memory for you?"

Crazy gave a thumbs up, still on the floor. "But...even when we were young, we didn't get on. See how the picture's been painted to have two halves?"

Now that Crazy mentioned it, Lucas could see the emptiness down the middle. The left hand side was presumably done by Crazy, since each hand print seemed to overlap and the blazing red and black seemed to stand out more than any other colour, wacky and loud in its artistic strokes. The right hand side had pastel colours, and Master had used all sorts of shapes like his knuckles and his wrist. Lucas saw Lucario nod next to him.

"Moving on." Crazy turned round and imitated a slug by tucking his fingers under and shuffling across. Lucas took one last look at the picture before following the hand. He paused at the glass cabinet containing the china plates and rock collection.

"Very simple things," Lucario mused. "What's this got to do with you and Master?"

"More importantly, what's this got to do with the culprit?" Ganondorf muttered. He folded his arms sulkily, sighing heavily. "I didn't come here for a grand tour of the Hands' weird tastes in decor."

"You're thinking Master Hand took interest in these, no? And that those creepy things are mine?" He pointed first to the stag heads, then to the skeletal hands in the glass cabinet further down. He gave a small laugh. "It's something quite different."

Lucario tilted his head. "Is it all…the other way round then?" He couldn't imagine Crazy taking interest in collecting something as ordinary as china plates or having a hobby of collecting precious rocks like a child. He was far too crazy for a hobby as ordinary as that.

"In between," Crazy replied. "The stag heads and the stones are mine, and the china plates and those hands belong to Master. When we were in our mid fifties, I was highly interested in hunting and Master was equally as interested in sculpting."

"Mid fifties? You are old, Crazy," Lucario commented.

"He did say the painting back there was done centuries ago," Lucas reasoned, offering him a weak smile.

"Centuries ago? So you are going to retirement?" Lucario narrowed his eyes, daring Crazy to reply. His paws clenched and unclenched themselves. "If that's the case, couldn't you give the Mansion to someone else?"

"We're only 539 years old!" Crazy said laughing, almost derisively, as though this was common knowledge. "Hands are expected to live at least 3000 years!"

Lucario's mouth dropped. He was about to question more of how aging affected hands, but Ganondorf suddenly said, "So what does this stuff have to do with the culprit?" He looked at the items in the cabinets pointedly.

"Even if I've already told you Master and I had hobbies which were typically meant to be the other way round, you still don't believe me, no?" Crazy questioned. He saw each of them nod. "Master was highly creative, as you know. The hands and plates were what he made. They may seem a normal size to you, but for hands, making such minuscule things can be a pain in the knuckles."

"So if this is Master's work, what have these other things got to do with you?" Lucas said.

"I mentioned it already," Crazy said tiredly. "How many times must a hand repeat himself before he's heard? I enjoyed hunting whatever I could. This stag you see here was my first kill. It was something I was very proud of. And this one was one which took an absolute age to find and shoot."

Lucario wrinkled his nose as he soon realised the heads were the real thing. The stench was barely noticeable since time had passed since then, but it was still there. Lucas felt his stomach clench at the sight of them and found he couldn't look at them for too long. In stark contrast, Ganondorf didn't even flinch.

Crazy ignored the discomfort and carried on. "That rock collection was a passing trend. I enjoyed visiting volcanoes and gathered rocks from the active ones. You ask me about whichever one you want to know about and I would be able to tell you which volcano and when. I doubt Master even remembers information like that about his own works."

Ganondorf raised his eyebrows. "So basically, this room is your achievements summed up."

"That's not all of it. There's more in the other rooms if you want to look," Crazy offered, twitching as he waited for their answer.

Lucario opened his mouth in excitement, but he was once again stopped by Ganondorf.

"What's all this meant to show?" the Gerudo demanded.

If Crazy could smile, he would be doing so now. "Don't you see? In the beginning, we were two separate hands, having two separate lives. As we lived on, we became more confused about what our separate personalities were meant to be. It's still happening now."

"You can say that again," Ganondorf interrupted quickly. "You've got me confused already." Lucas and the Pokemon smiled apologetically having the same sentiment.

"That's what you get for missing most of the tour," the hand told them irritably. "But if you want to go for more recent times, I'll skip that bit. Master wanted to create a Mansion for fighters to meet each other. I openly agreed. The first season began, so that people with true intentions could spar with each other and make friends."

The first season had begun when the Mansion was brand new, and heroes from around the universe were invited. The Gerudo knew that well. There were twelve places to be filled, and the members decided were either seen as lucky or heroic. It was then that it clicked with Ganondorf.

"The first season only invited heroes," Ganondorf mused. "There was no room for villains."

Crazy laughed, slowly turning to face Ganondorf. "The first season served as a tester, you could say. Even I was excluded from the first season. We didn't invite villains for two reasons: one, it wouldn't be appealing for the audience to watch and two, the villains would hate the heroes even more for having something they deserved too. You felt like that, no?"

"Then what about the second and third season? Villains were allowed to compete then," Lucas asked curiously.

"We accepted villains of all sorts to compete, from Mewtwo to Wolf. Even Wario. Villains who had the desire to crush their opponent no matter what. We believed the Mansion would be the ultimate battlefield, where it was clear-cut who were villains and who were heroes." Crazy Hand sighed. "However, as time went by, everyone made friends with everyone. The line between the two classes blurred, even between me and Master Hand. And that wasn't supposed to happen."

Lucas couldn't believe it. Was that the true purpose of the Mansion? To strengthen the rivalries between rivals and villains? Was it not to make friends, like how it was for the heroes in the first season?

Lucario leaned against the glass cabinet lazily. "Why are you telling us this? What has good and evil got to do with it?"

The hand spasmed. "Good and evil's everything! It was there right from the start. However, by allowing you to mingle and get to know each other, the very purpose of the Mansion dissolved, and even us hands forgot. We were just happy to see everyone get on."

"I'm still missing something here," Ganondorf hinted, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Of course, of course," Crazy said unhurriedly. "Four days ago, one Smasher came here and reminded us of the Mansion's true purpose. Not intentionally, mind you," he added carelessly as Lucas and Ganondorf opened their mouths to protest. "He was just concerned about how much villains had changed since they begun. He commented about you in particular, Ganondorf."

"W-what? Talking behind my back, I'm going to strangle him! Who was it, Crazy? Tell me!"

The hand simply jolted, not listening to a word Ganondorf was saying. "He said you've been following Jigglypuff everywhere."

Crazy roared with laughter and Ganondorf, fuming, launched into a tirade of angry protests. Lucario had already covered his ears, since they were sensitive enough already. Lucas tapped Crazy lightly, who finished laughing in an instant. Ganondorf was still streaming annoyed insults ("Lies! Why would I follow a pretty puffball...I mean a er..."), so Lucario jabbed a spiked hand into his back to make him quieten down.

"So Crazy," Lucas began, "if this Mansion's closing on your and Master's agreement, why aren't you letting it carry on? Maybe we like making friends here, whether that was intentional or not."

Lucario nodded. "Because of the Mansion, people have gotten to know villains are still people at the end of the day. It's helped them to see past their wildest imagination." He looked down at the floor, smiling grimly. "That's why I admire you – even now. You're not crazy."

Crazy snorted. "I'm not someone to be admired. Master said to me once: 'As much as we both don't like it, you're the face of the devil and I'm the face of the angel. People depend on the angels more than the devils'." Crazy slammed a fist on the floor in rage. "Devils shouldn't be admired. We do wrong things to make the heroes look better. Bringing everyone together wasn't supposed to happen."

Crazy got off the floor abruptly, and began to circle the table for no real reason. His speed increased gradually, and all Lucario could do was watch.

"So the closure of the Mansion was to bring that back, huh? The mansion's just a reminder of good and evil." Ganondorf lowered his gaze in thought. He had once craved that power, but that seemed like a distant dream to him. What he wanted right now was to stay here, with everyone. The Mansion was his home now.

Crazy Hand suddenly stopped in his tracks, realising the three were still gathered by the glass cabinet. "I'm not reading out anymore bedtime stories." He floated down at full speed and halted a few inches from Lucario's snout. "You should go to sleep now, children. Go to your—"

With a final twitch, Crazy slumped onto the floor. Lucario stared at him for a few moments, before squatting down next to him. Ganondorf and Lucas just watched in horror. What had happened?

"…Crazy?"

-- End --

A/N: That was a ridiculously long chapter. Sorry about that, but I needed to cram everything in. So now you know the ballistic reason. The culprit and the outcome will be decided in the next chapter! Please say what you thought of the chapter in a review! I would highly appreciate it!