Disclaimer: I don't own SSB

Stupid life, getting in the way of my precious stories... it's so much harder to write this one since it's serious, and randomly adding words to it in the middle of the night while I'm studying for exams without sugar or chocolate or something doesn't help. You don't want to know how badly I managed to butcher the word "I".... Yes, I'm a horrible meany for not updating in three months and then giving people like three pages of tying-up-loose-ends crap. If anyone wants to help me get back at life, speak up.

Oh yeah, and I know Midna should have won. Midna's awesome. But don't you dare go saying Zant's stupid, because he's awesome too. I even wrote a little tribute to him, because I was feeling so dark and twisted at the time... Ahem, moving on. Don't think Midna's not through with him yet, though. She'd never go down like that.


Shadows: Part Two

Link held the defeated Twilight Princess in his arms even tighter as Master Hand named Zant the victor. He glanced worriedly down at Midna, who had forced herself into an unconsciousness, unwilling to face defeat and the humiliation in carried.

As he turned his gaze back up to the stage, where Zant was erratically jumping and wailing with untamed glee, his face transformed from an infinitely deep sea of pity and compassion to a furious dark storm.

Tonight there would be a congratulatory feast for Zant, and the next day, he would officially be a Smasher. A colleague. An equal.

Link had to repress a growl. Zant would never be an equal. Link would never accept him.


Master Hand floated motionlessly over the center of the Stadium. Zant was putting on quite a victory show, and it was, to say the least, off-putting. It reminded him of Crazy Hand when he got... well, crazy.

And speaking of Crazy Hand...

Master Hand turned ever so slightly to catch the left hand in the edge of his vision. He was certainly lively after this battle; who wouldn't be, after such an exciting match? But there was something...some elusive something, that was... different. Crazy Hand, equally brilliant as the right hand, preferred not to put his brilliance to use, allowing Master Hand to run the Smash Bros and watch over his World of Trophies, leaving Crazy Hand free to run amok and do as he pleased. Crazy Hand's decision to pit the rebels against each other was a rare flash of insight. That was a change.

Although, that might be attributed to the nagging feeling in the back of Master Hand's mind. The right hand recalled his words to Link after the brawl between Young Link and Toon Link: "Something greater than this lies in wait, I can feel it."

Was it the something? The corners of his mind were constantly grasping at an elusive, slippery unknown. The something he kept feeling but never reaching was undoubtedly trying to make itself known, bring itself out into the open. Crazy Hand, being his alter ego, would probably have felt it too, would have felt, by something more powerful and more tangible than instinct, that something was wrong in the Manor, as if their presence had been spread everywhere, but blindfolded, deprived of clarity in their senses. Yes, that had to explain his behavior. He was in sync with Master Hand, and he would support the Smash Bros leader. It was his way of acting as a team.

And then, there was the entire scenario itself. The Smash Manor had to deal with an uprising of potentially anyone who wasn't a Smasher. That certainly didn't happen every week. Master Hand hoped this wouldn't turn into some sort of obscure pattern or spiral wildly out of control. The introduction of Brawl had already caused enough excitement, and it was time for things to resume normally. Master Hand would call a meeting after the congratulatory feast. He would call all his loyal, longtime Smashers to help him restore order.

Master Hand liked order.


The long table where the Smashers and Assistants ate dinner was nosier than usual, if such a thing was possible. Many people were trying to include Zant in the conversations they were having, or otherwise asking him questions or simply staring at him with awed faces, and the Twili was nearly vibrating with excitement and happiness. This was acceptance, this was power, triumph, glory.

While Zant basked in this light, several of the Smashers refrained from talking to him.

Link was, of course, still furious, and the emotion that had reduced itself to glowing embers had begun roaring in earnest again as the dinner started. In an attempt not to glare at everyone and everything in his line of sight, he had engrossed himself with the meal and refused to talk to anyone.

Link liked being able to help his friends, and protect them when needed. Zelda was of course on of his best friends, as was Midna, and Toon Link was funny in a hyper way and Ganondorf could actually be more than tolerable at times. Ike and Pit were always good for training for swordsmanship and archery, and after the whole Subspace incident he had really bonded with Kirby and Yoshi, two people he never thought would be anything more than close acquaintances.

So far, he had failed to protect his friends on several occasions. He had already attacked Mario and Pit once due to a misunderstanding over a Zelda trophy he had seen dissolving, and later, when he saw the real Zelda being taken away by King Dedede, he had felt his heart sink when he realized this would be the second time he failed to help her. And for Midna, it would be his third. Granted, she hadn't put her life on the line this time, but still...

He strayed glances at Young Link and Zant. Two people he already couldn't trust. Then he thought back to his meeting with Master Hand after Young Link beat Toon Link, and remembered Lyn and Roy.

And he thought of everyone who could possibly want to replace someone, or become a Smasher, or simply get some more attention, and he frowned heavily at the endless possibilities. Everyone wanted something. And most people would do anything to get it. What did the Smashers want? What did everybody else want? What did his friends want?

Who could he trust?


Zelda gave Link a sympathetic glance as the Hero frowned into his steak dinner, no doubt worrying himself over the events of the afternoon. She kept to herself as well, but at least had a better poker face.

She really wished she could read his mind, though. But if his thoughts were in line with what happened, he was wondering what was going on, and who was who in this silent struggle. He would wonder who everyone labeled themselves as, and why. He would wonder about the motives of each person, and if it was really all worth it. Worth doing this to the Smash Mansion.

However, Master Hand controlled everything in the Smash Manor. Heck, he controlled everything in the World of Trophies and the universe beyond! If anyone would know what was up inside the Manor, it would be him.

She was going to have a long, serious discussion with Master Hand later.


The Smash Mansion infirmary was a huge white collection of state-of-the-art medical technology and two long rows of beds. There were only two doors in the infirmary; one led in from the hallways near the portals to the stadiums, and the other was a door off to the left which housed the operating equipment. Currently, the infirmary was abandoned, save one lonely soul.

The patient had healed hours ago, but refused to wake up and face reality. But the sweet dreams that had kept the truth away had melted into nightmares some time ago, and as Midna tossed and turned fretfully, stirring and groaning, those nightmares in turn were giving way to something even more wicked and cruel.

Her eyes screwed shut tighter than effort in a bid to keep wakefulness at bay, but the battle was lost, and Midna's dulled fiery eyes slowly revealed themselves to the world.

Just as soon as they had opened, they shut again with weary acceptance and misery, and Midna allowed a few tears to escape.

She had lost to Zant, again. She was the stronger one – she had the Fused Shadows, dammit! --and yet she had failed. She had tried her hardest, and she could not overcome him. His words rang in her head.

"You have a gift for evasion. Befitting of such a cowardly ruler."

The few tears staining her face quite literally boiled, steamed into wisps of vapor. Her yellow-and-maroon eyes opened once again with a new fire and a new fury in them.

She was not cowardly. She had always done what she deemed best for her people. And she was not weak. And she would not hand victory over to Zant that easily. She was not going to give in.

She had tried her best. She would try harder. Yes. If Zant wanted his victory, he would have to pry in from her cold, dead, unrelenting grasp. He. Would. Not. Win.

She had felt this malicious only when she had discovered the Fused Shadow in her possession when Zant cursed her as an imp. And with the wave of malice came the haunting grin.


Even with all the excitement of the day, most of the Smash Manor was sleeping by midnight. At which time most of the Omnipresent, along with the newly-appointed double agent Jaye, made their way to the basement as quietly as they could. The creaky door gave several a good adrenaline rush, but no one seemed to notice it. Mewtwo was one of the last people to enter, gliding in to dead silence.

A quick glance of all the faces told that neither Young Link nor Zant were present. However, this seemed to satisfy Mewtwo to some extent. "They aren't here," he murmured. "I suppose that's just as well. Although they should be told as well. We need to know why Crazy Hand decided to try and split us."

"He's Crazy Hand. He probably did it out of boredom," Jaye said, but uncertainty laced his voice.

"Unless he knows about this."

"True."

"The main thing is, we don't know why. He could have done it for entertainment, like you say. Or he could know, thinking logically for once, tried to split our numbers."

Gray Fox spoke up. "Well, one thing's for sure, everybody is going to be on their guard now. I was actually surprised we played the same card twice. Master Hand won't tolerate people coming to fight to become Smashers anymore. We need another tactic, for now."

"Like what?" Issac asked. "How else would we become Smashers than by fighting for the position? It's an honor, not a throw-away."

"War," Mewtwo said, "Is not entirely about fighting."


Master Hand hated paperwork.

But he couldn't entirely hate paperwork, because he could always expect it, and it gave him a sort of pattern, a constant, something he could rely on.

Although, paperwork at one in the morning he definitely hated. Even the Hands needed sleep.

Crazy Hand seemed to be irritated at being deprived his sleep, but kept his comments to himself. "There's always tomorrow," he said, reminding the right hand calmly.

Master Hand sighed wearily. "And what do you suppose tomorrow will bring? About five more people who have heard of all this chaos and decided to try and make a name for themselves as Smashers. We can't have fifty people on the Smasher roster, and if we don't put a stop to all this madness soon, we're going to have more than fifty people every day attempting utter nonsense to make it in! So I have to finish this before morning."

"Technically, it is morning, but yes," Crazy Hand said. "But what exactly is it? You haven't told me."

Master Hand picked up several sheets in front of him with thumb and forefinger. "Hopefully, a solution. Now all I need to do is put up an announcement. Then I'm going to try and get some rest before the complaints start." And with that, he glided out of his office for the front hall.


The Zelda lounge, like all the other game lounges, was a wonderful place for characters from the series to relax when they had nothing to do. Although, in the case of the Zelda lounge, a good majority of its population was wondering where two very prominent characters had disappeared off to.

They received their answer in the form of one Toon Link, who randomly showed up, looking pretty defeated.

"Link!" Tetra yelled defensively, running over to her friend. "What happened to you?"

"Young Link," Toon Link replied tiredly.

"Huh?"

"He fought me so he could be a Smasher. He won."

"So you got kicked out?"

"I wouldn't stay after that," Toon Link said. "It was... humiliating. I'm going to my room," he said, trudging off, ignoring questioning stares.

Tetra's eyes followed her friend, with concern for him and anger for Young Link. Nobody humiliated her friends without retribution. Not even an alter ego.


Yeah that was booooooring, sorry. It was mainly out of guilt at not updating. Hopefully now that my two most pivotal exams are over with, and I have disturbed the proctors with random not-so-comforting drawings in the exam booklets (...stupid churches with their stupid pictures of their stupid sacrificial lambs....) I will be able to follow this up with something more meaningful.

So, lessons learned: Zant kicks ass too, Nayru needs chocolate to write, Nayru updates like a sporadic nail gun (aka when she feels like it), and churches are not good places to take important tests.

And the sporadic nail gun is MY phrase. Don't you steal it. Or I will punish your usage of it WITH a sporadic nail gun.

G'nighty...