…hear me? I repeat: this is Lady Palutena, contacting Pit.

One second ago he was almost frostbitten, but now he was so warm and cosy in… whatever this slimy stuff was. And now his goddess was calling his name with her soothing, lovable voice for the first time in five years!

"Lady Palutena… is that you?" Pit moaned, slightly muffled by the oxygen mask.

Pit! You're awake! Thank goodness! Okay, I'm going to get you out of there.

"What?" Pit's head was scrambled by confusion. Nothing that was going on made sense. What took his goddess so long to make contact? What was he in? And most importantly: "What are you talking about?"

I can't extract you because you're indoors, but if I get you outside there's going to be a clear path between you and Skyworld.

"Where am I? What's happening?"

Brace yourself, Pit. You'll be crashing through a few doors on your way out. The goddess didn't have time to answer all of her servant's questions, but why?

"Will you please tell me what's going on?"

Enabling the power of flight!

The angel's wings glowed with heavenly light and stretched out as far as they could go, tugging on embedded wires in an attempt to break free. It was a numb, stretching pain at first, but Pit knew it was about to get much worse.

"Oh no…"

It was breakfast time at the mansion. Normally Olimar would take his meal to his room, but for some reason he just didn't care to eat. He had elected to socialize with the oxygen-breathers instead of nourishing himself. He wasn't in the mood for starting a conversation, but surely someone would pay attention to him?

"You okay, little guy?" Wolf, of all people, decided to see how Olimar was going.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out starting World War 3 over that hot tub?"

"Oh, you haven't heard?" The renegade sat beside his fellow astronaut at the table. "There's been… a lot going on. Normally I wouldn't be talking to someone like you, no offence, but you need to know. Where do I start… Master Hand has locked us inside the mansion."

"Really?" Olimar asked. He was surprised to hear of Master Hand taking such actions considering how hands-off he had been for the past week. "How do you know this?"

"Well, my gang and Pit's gang were actually going to fight for that spa-"

"And the back door didn't budge?"

"Yeah…" the wolf admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "Then we noticed Pit wasn't with them, which was kind of odd considering how he was the one who started the whole feud in the first place. Apparently, he had gone to find Fox after he escaped last night."

"Wait, Fox escaped last night? Slow down with the information. I'm not as clued in as you are."

"Did you sleep through the giant explosion or something? You must have. Anyways, Pit went after Fox and neither of them have come back for breakfast." The wolf sat in silence, waiting for the astronaut to react to the news, but the reaction never came. "Aren't you… you know… upset about Fox?"

"Not really. Fox said this place was a simulation; maybe they found a way to get out permanently."

"That kind of seems unlikely…"

"It's better than thinking they're dead, right?"

"You keep thinking that, imp," Wolf scoffed, getting out of his seat. "I have a breakfast to eat."

Once again, Olimar was left alone at an empty table with only his thoughts: where could Pit and Fox be? If they fell off the void, why didn't they come back? If they didn't fall off, where exactly were they? Were they okay?

In Pit's case, the answer was an absolute no. He was currently being hurled through this seemingly endless corridor as his goddess struggled to find the path of least resistance between inside and outside. The wounds left by the wires that were once directly attached to him didn't help matters either.

"Get me out of here!" he screamed, his body wracked with pain while his wings did the hard work.

I'm trying to, Pit, Palutena replied, but the whole place is completely sealed shut! Maybe we could wait beside an elevator or-

"Just throw me through a window or something!" the angel whimpered as his blood flowed out of the many holes in his flesh.

Are you sure? That would be really painful!

"I'm already in pain! Very intense pain at that!" Pit yelped, as he dodged yet another security officer.

Alright, then. But we'll have to go fast; these windows are really strong and you'd just bounce off of them at the speed you're going. I'll have to put all my power into the boost, though, so if this doesn't work you're stuck there.

"There's no other way! I don't think I can hold out much longer!" It was true, Pit was starting to feel extremely cold and breathing was getting harder.

Understood, Pit. Building up power.

The angel could immediately feel the power build up; a force was accumulating inside his wings that made them shake and glow. Soon, all that potential energy would burst out and propel him at the speed of sound. But until then, Pit had to survive. He was going around in circles within the corridor.

Survival was more a matter of endurance, as there wasn't much in the corridor for Pit to run into. It was actually a simple affair: dodge the guard, dodge the watercooler, dodge the intern, dodge the pot plant, repeat. It would have been easy if he was at his best, but he was bleeding his entire body out and it was hard to take his mind off the pain.

When the energy in Pit's wings was almost at maximum capacity, his vision started blurring and his limbs went numb. "I can't do it, Lady Palutena… I think I'm nearly gone."

Just hang on for another minute, Pit! The boost is ready!

The angel came to a halt that knocked the wind out of him like he had ran into a wall. The godly force that had kept him airborne pointed him towards the outside. He could see the sky, his true home, but his eyes started weighing heavy and he lost almost all feeling in his body. The only warmth he received was from the vast energy his wings were about to release.

"Lady Palutena… If I don't make it…"

FLY!

Before Pit could react, he slammed through the thick glass and into the fresh air outside. Looking down, he could see that he was very high above the ground. With the power of flight completely depleted, his horizontal trajectory slowly curved downwards. He tried to smile, but he was having trouble holding on to life. When his body was engulfed by a warm light from his goddess, it was then that he finally closed his eyes and relaxed…