Thanks to ArkNorth for giving me the stupid idea upon which I start out this chapter.


TALES OF THE WAY-STATION

9: Akashic Records

Lucina's fingers clacked over a keyboard. She had an easier time with it than the touchpads that some of the other residents had been trying to show her. She'd wanted to learn a bit of the technology that was used in the Smash Mansion and was currently enlisting the aid of Samus Aran and Red the Pokemon Trainer. She wasn't yet used to the games that Lady Palutena was providing for everyone even though Link had taken to them like a duck to water and she was more interested in practical uses of screens and data.

"I'm afraid that I'm always going to be more comfortable with tomes," Lucina sighed.

"Oh, you'll get the hang of it," Samus encouraged as she watched Lucina type the sentence "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" over and over again to get her fingers used to the feel of a standard desktop computer typing pad. Apparently, even this was a bit archaic to the current level of technology that was standard to the grounds and was especially primitive to the spacefarer, Samus. The bounty hunter informed the princess of how the system she was on was "just a step up from typewriters."

"Computers were all over my world," Red said from the other side of the young woman's chair. "We integrated them with biology and used them to store Pokemon in virtual-world settings like the stages here. In fact, it was my job and the job of other trainers to collect Pokemon for data-gathering purposes – to learn more about them, you know!"

"So… your strange animals would live inside these things?" Lucina asked.

"Sort of," Red answered. "And not all of them are willing to be transposed into data. Pikachu – the one you know here – hates going into a pokeball or being in a computer like cats hate baths! I don't think Mewtwo has ever let himself be stored – and I recall him telling me that some of the 'gods' don't particularly like it and will only do it as a concession to the right trainer."

"Gods?"

"Legendary Pokemon," Red answered. "They are Pokemon that are tied to great powers in nature. I've seen Xearnas and Arceus hanging out in the fields and forests here – I think they can come to this world without dying, like Palutena and Rosalina. I haven't seen Yveltal, though…and I think I would, at least every once in a while."

"What kind of Pokemon is he?" Lucina asked.

"The Legendary Pokemon of Destruction and Death," Red said simply. "You'd think with this being a land of the dead that he'd raise his beak here every now and again, but I ain't seen 'im. He is… a giant flying creature that according to the old stories, is awakened by war and tends to get grumpy, kill entire nations and go back to sleep."

Lucina visibly shuddered.

"What's wrong, Luce?"

"N…nothing," she muttered.

"Hey, do you want to access the Smash database?" Samus suggested. "Just close up that type-training program and click this little icon here. All of our worlds have archives. They aren't complete… all of the oldest stuff is in the physical library, but if you want to learn about Pokemon, the Pokedex is in the computer-system."

"It's always being updated, though," Red informed. "New kinds are being discovered all the time all over the world I had to leave."

"Or," Samus said, "You could do what your mother and your 'uncle' do all the time on our computers…"

"What's that?"

"Battle simulations."

"They would," Lucina said with a smirk.

"Some of them are kind of ridiculous," Red added. "I mean, some are empire-builders, but there's one where you just sic red and blue guys with pitchforks and boxing gloves and stuff on each other. It's actually pretty fun to watch."

"Is there… information on all of us?" Lucina asked.

"Of course," Samus said, leaning over the desk. "Would you like to know everyone's birthdays?"

"Sure," Lucina said, sitting back in the office chair and letting Samus draw up a birthday-roster.

"We'll start with yours…" Samus muttered. "April 20th."

"Does anyone have their birthday soon?" Lucina asked.

"Should be coming up on someone's," Samus said, "but it's not like we do much celebrating of birthdays around here. It depends upon the person and those they are close to. The kids like birthday parties. Some of the more sober-minded adults actually celebrate their death-days."

"I wouldn't see that as a cause for celebration," Lucina said dourly.

Samus input a query for the current month. "Ah, there, Link has a birthday coming up!"

Lucina stared at the screen. Before her was an entire roster of, as best as she could guess, "Links." There were little square images of Link with slightly differing hairstyles and colors, but by the face, even with the youthful faces, the subject was clearly Link. Next to each picture was listed a different birthday.

Samus laughed. "Oh, would you look at that! I guess he's been reincarnated as himself so many times that he has multiple birthdays!"

Lucina scrolled down, down and down.

"Is it just me," she asked, "or is he making weird faces in every one of those images?"

Red stared incredulously. "It's like one of those quick-snap photo-booths…"


"What exactly happens when you reincarnate, Link?"

"Huh?" Link was taken aback by the question. He was sitting on a rock beside a deep woods fairy-spring that he'd taken Lucina out to see. This was one of the things that existed in the Smash World for him – a little taste of home. He was stripped to the waist, showing some of the scars he'd gained to his mortal body in his last life, left to linger in his self-image here. His back was to the Ylissean as he dangled his feet into the cool water. He'd prodded her into riding out here with him on Epona to have a little picnic and swim.

Lucina was sure that he'd had a specific motivation – that this was a "date," but she couldn't be sure. She'd known plenty of staggers and starts between romances and pure friendships when she'd been among the Shepherds. Once in a while, someone would start getting moon-eyes for someone who was already happily married and some people suffered from incompatible sexualities… Poor Libra! Lucina remembered him fondly – the group's priest and chief combat-medic who was a very beautiful and largely shy and romantically-disinterested man that all the new recruits mistook for female upon a first meeting. At least one of the other male troops kept on flirting with him even after learning the truth and the attention had been unwanted. Lucina had wondered upon first meeting Link if he'd had the same problem. To her eyes, he was clearly male, but he wasn't overly masculine and could easily be called "pretty."

"Yes," with a frown had been his answer to the question some time ago. He'd had that issue with a few people here in the Way-Station. He'd told Lucina that one of his previous lifetimes had been the worst in that regard and mistaken gender had frequently happened, complete with some people misnaming him for Zelda when they'd been out on delegations together. His latest body had been a little more "rugged" – just a touch more masculine than that previous one, but that it didn't keep certain "fangirls" (as he called them) in his world and era from trying to hook him up with guys they knew.

Of course, today, with the sun on his scarred back and a toned torso, he looked all-man. Was he showing off for her?

Gods, Link…Take this any further and I am going to smack you into next week!

But it wasn't as if she was not enjoying the view, nor was it a view of a man she was unaccustomed to. Getting Uncle Vaike or Sir Basillio to wear a proper shirt of any kind was like getting dogs to meow.

"Well," Link said, snapping her out of her reverie, "When I reincarnate… I'm… a baby. Milk, diapers, learning to walk again, the whole thing. I'd say it's rather undignified if I could remember any of it."

"Well, yes, Captain Obvious!" Lucina teased, "What I meant was… do you feel anything at all from your former life?"

"I know this much," Link said, turning around on his rock to face her, "I forget everything while I am alive. I am supposed to focus on the life ahead of me and I think my world's goddesses do not wish me to know that I am their Hero until it is time for me to know. I suppose I'd curse their names and be just-angry-all the time if I knew I had to go back and get my old stuff from a series of old ruins again and again!"

"That would be annoying, yes."

"You know how you lose your chamber-keys," Link added, "and you look all over for them and they're in the last place you'd thought to look? Imagine that with vital weapons and tools that you depend upon for your very survival! And they aren't in your pocket or on some desk somewhere or behind a bed, but in a crumbling old dungeon filled with traps and dangerous beasts who've been magically-programmed with the sole purpose in life of killing you!"

"Are you angry now? You come back here and remember things in this place."

"You bet I'm mad!" Link said, comically folding his arms in front of his chest and pouting. "I'm okay though, really," he said, relaxing a moment later. "This place makes for a great vacation destination. By the time Hyrule needs me again, I'm generally rested up and in good enough spirits to overlook having to find magical items all over again. I tend to be given new versions, anyway, upgrades and the like."

"Do you ever get a sense of déjà vu?"

"Occasionally," Link confessed. "I'm pretty sure that not all of my memory can be erased, given that my spirit is consistent. I've gotten vague feelings of familiarity. I'm pretty sure I've met my great-great grandchildren as adults when I was a child a few times. It's a strange feeling, that."

Lucina looked toward the ground and contemplated some bright, green fuzzy moss. "Do you ever miss your family? Any of your… families?"

"Yes," the Hylian answered. "But I know that they live good lives after the peace Lady Zelda and I bring. I've watched my world, sometimes – when Master Hand has allowed it. I check in to see what my descendants are doing by a scrying screen... As for my former lovers… for the most part, they've moved on – what I mean is, I actually have a choice of afterlives. I could go to the realm of my goddesses like they have and wait to reincarnate there, or I can come here. I choose here every time because I find it more fun."

"Former lovers…" Lucina said with a sigh.

"Former," Link said. "Zelda's been with me in a few lifetimes, but in our last one, we didn't feel anything more than friendship for each other. It's strange how it all works, really. When I reincarnate Lucina, I get a fresh life, yet, at base, I am still myself."

Lucina looked up. "Do you feel any lingering attachment for them… or for Zelda? Do you remember much from your days as lovers?"

"I can't say that I really do," Link said. "I remember the paths my lives took, but the families I had… it's like looking at a faded pictograph. It's like I wind up being fresh for every life, no bonds but the ones I make in a given life."

Link held both of his hands up, palms outward. "I'm… not a philanderer, Lucina, if that's what you think. It's too… weird… to fully get a grasp on. I've always been faithful and then… 'poof!' I'm dead and I have to start all over again."

"It must be hard…"

"It would be if I knew of it while alive, but I don't."

"You're starting to sound like my little brother." Lucina smiled a fond, sad smile. "He didn't remember much of the horrible time that we came from when we traveled back. I have told you about him…"

"The kid with amnesia problems, just like his mother."

"Yes. I was relieved beyond belief when we'd found him in the past because I thought he was dead, but to not remember me was painful... To this day, I suspect he went through something horrible – bad enough to blank out his mind. On the other side of it… he was so cheerful. Growing up with him… he'd always been a happy kid, but… during the dark times, he lost a lot of that, and then when most of his memories were gone, he was the Morgan I knew again. You're sounding a lot like him right now – you go through all these hardships, you get a blank slate and you're free again. I can't say I don't envy you."

"Aw, Lucina… can't we can all the heavy talk and just enjoy the forest? It's a nice day today."

Lucina looked down with a bright blush. "Link, you can't be this dumb."

"I can be as dumb as I want to be."

"I like you. There, I said it. I like you and I barely know why I'm here and I don't know how long I'll stay here or what will happen to me after my time here is up."

She looked hard at Link. "And you… You are eventually going to move onto a new life. I guess what I'm saying is… I wish I could go with you."

Link was blushing now. "I want that, too, more than anything."

"Aren't we bound to our worlds?" Lucina wrung her hands. "I don't know if I am supposed to stay here with my ancestors…with…with Marth! Or if I'm slated to live again in my world – I don't even have a TIME, Link! I didn't even belong where I ended up! I altered my own timeline!"

"Oh, I know all about that, sweetheart," Link said grinning. "Toon Link exists because I kind of… broke Time."

"Aaarrgh!" Lucina got up from her seat and paced, her fists clenched at her sides. "I don't want any more people to leave me! I don't want to leave any more people!"

"Lucy… I don't think reincarnation is going to happen to me for a long time. The Hands have Ganondorf well-sealed here. We can be together for a good long time and… if all else fails…"

"If all else fails?"

"Use fire." Link chuckled at his own joke. "Nah, if all else fails, I'll… find a way to tie myself to your world so I won't have to leave you."

Lucina was blushing hard now and she stood still like a deer caught in a pair of high-beam headlights on a lonely woodland highway.

She shook her head. "You can't do that, Link. Your world needs you."

"Well, maybe we can find a way for you to change fate again," the young man said with a wink. "I am sure a discussion with Master Hand could pave a way for you to reincarnate into Hyrule with me. We can be born together, in the same generation and we can find each other again."

"Are you sure it's possible for things to work that way?" Lucina said, hopeful.

"You tell me. You're the one who comes from a world where bonds are more powerful than Fate."


The pair rode back to the mansion as swiftly as Epona would carry them. Lucina held on tight to Link as they jounced in the saddle, letting the mare overtake fallen logs and divots of muddy earth along the way. It began raining before the pair got back, prompting them to enter through one of the back-hallways and to get some towels to make themselves less damp. They laughed as they rubbed each other's hair dry. When they entered the main hall, they came home to a scene of clamor and confusion.

"Oh, Lucina!" Luigi yelped, running up to her and grabbing her by the shoulders, "You need to come a' back to quarters quickly!"

"What is it?" she asked, a sudden cold alarm freezing the marrow in her bones. There wasn't supposed to be anything that could actually kill someone here, but she knew that people could still get hurt and the urgency in Luigi's eyes had her on the verge of panic. Fear of seeing broken angel wings on either of the Pits or Red after a mauling by Charizard danced through her head.

"Why, what happened?" Link asked, "Did old Ganondorf keel over from a heart attack or something? I know it's not supposed to happen, but a boy can dream!"

"Nah," said Falco Lombardi as he leaned with his back up against a pillar. He was one of the few in the hall that looked unperturbed. "Robin was in a team fight with Marth against Fox and me and before we even got started, she keeled over on the stage. It was the puppy-stage, too…"

"Keeled over?" Link asked with alarm. "What do you mean?"

"She dropped like a sack of rocks is what I mean," the bird-man said. "She's not a trophy, but she looked pretty sick. It just happened all of a sudden – no one laid a hit on her. Doc Mario and Marth took her to her room."

"Mother!" Lucina cried out as she took off in a run. Link followed her.

She pushed her way into Robin's Roost past Marth and quickly apologized to him. Doctor Mario was standing around and Rob was seated beside the bed. He gently held the hand of an unconscious Robin.

"She will be just fine," Doctor Mario informed the frantic daughter.

"H-how do you know?"

Link stepped past her and took a long look at the figure in the bed. "She just fell over, right? Did she say anything first?"

"Chrom," Marth said simply.

"She called out for Chrom," Rob said, "At least that's what Lord Marth and Sir McCloud told us."

"I have examined her," Doctor Mario said. "She is sleeping, but everything is in working order. She should wake up pretty soon."

Lucina shooed Rob out of his seat and took his place holding her mother's hand.

"She's dreaming," the princess said. "Her eyelids are twitching."

"Which means she'll soon awaken," the doctor said. "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do and I assure you that this is no cause for worry."

"No cause for worry?" Lucina shot back, "She collapsed on a stage!"

"I have a' seen this before," the pudgy man said.

"I have, too," Link said.

"What kind of thing?" Lucina demanded, "People suddenly losing consciousness for no good reason?" She turned back to Robin. "She looks so pale… so faded… Mother…"

"I don't know how to say this, Lucina," Link began, "But she is showing the signs of what we like to call the 'fade-sickness.' It's not really a sickness, but it is what we call it."

"She's ready to go home, finally?" Rob asked.

Link nodded.

Lucina looked to Robin and back to him.

"When people here are ready to move onto the true afterlife that is waiting for them, or to reincarnation, or, in a rare case like your mother's, to a resurrection, they get a little ill. It starts when they have an episode like she had and then they kind of start to um… feel a pull to elsewhere. Eventually, they vanish."

"No… oh, gods, no! I need more time! I need her! I just came here! I've only gotten to be with her again for a matter of months!"

"She has been waiting for this a long time, Lucina," Rob said with a small amount of pain in his voice. "It is the reward that she has been looking forward to. You said yourself that everyone back in your home misses her and wants – needs her back."

"How long?" Lucina numbly.

"About a week… three days at the shortest, a week at the longest," Link said. "That is how it is always happened with me. She'll wake up and we'll prepare a ceremony – We tend to celebrate the 'moving on' around here."

"Mother," Lucina said, stroking Robin's hair.

"Once she's awake, she should get her affairs here in order as soon as possible," Link whispered. "I'm sorry, Lucina."

"This is the third time."


To be continued…