"In order for us to triumph, we must cast aside our meaningless trophies. We must set aside petty power struggles. We must subdue our pride and vanity. We must purge ourselves."

~Meta Knight

Chapter 8: Yoshi's Story

? ? ? ? ? ?

Ocean waves pushed Link toward the shore as he awoke, clinging onto a piece of driftwood.

Really? he thought. Driftwood again? Why couldn't he have just dropped me off on land?

He raised his head just in time to behold the silhouette of the Wind Fish disappearing once again into the clouds. And then it was gone. He was alone.

He didn't have to wait long, though, before his feet met solid ground under the chilly water. He waded across the sandy seabed until it became strangely flat and smooth, and as he shielded his eyes against the bright sun, he realized exactly what that surface was.

The shore—and the foreseeable land stretching to the horizon—was composed of a peculiar, flashing purple material. It was mostly flat, with gently rolling slopes here and there. And there was only one place in the Nintendo World that looked anything like it.

The Battlefields.

Why would the Wind Fish bring me here? Link wondered as he strained water from the light cloth of his pant legs, grateful that most of his upper body, at least, had managed to stay dry. He didn't have any extra outfits, so he would just have to let the rest air out. Then it occurred to him. Because the rest of the Nintendo World is too dangerous. The only safe place is where there are no darkened hearts—where there are no hearts at all.

He began walking inland, recalling his last journey across the Battlefields when he and a few other Smashers had escaped from Master Hand's Fortress. He dreaded the long, dull journey ahead of him.

But as if in answer to Link's dread, during his next several steps his entire surroundings faded away, transitioning to an entirely new environment—although it was one that Link was all too familiar with and none too pleased to see again. Giant tabletop; colossal walls and shelves; even the mouse hole through which he had escaped the first time.

Master Hand's Room.

It was no longer the organized place it had once been. Since the War of the Hands, the messy aftermath on the Battlefields had been cleaned up, but the Room had been abandoned, left behind as a grim reminder that no one wanted to have, and thus it had never been revisited since.

Link couldn't help but feel uneasy as he took in the wreckage from his position atop the table: the giant television screen, shattered from when Mother Brain had fired its lasers from inside; the various video game consoles, scorched or blown apart from various misfired energy shots of Space Pirates and Smash Brothers alike; and finally, the heaped ruins of Master Hand's Fortress, which had collapsed as a result of the Cloaked Nightmare's final attempt to squash the few remaining Smash Brothers who had stood against him. The entire Room, in fact, had been consumed in violet flames and battered by the vicious winds of Nightmare's tornado-like body, and the virtual lack of any untarnished surface stood as evidence of that fateful encounter.

Link placed one of Master Hand's golden trophy stands on a pile of rubble and sat down. What was he supposed to do now? Just walk all the way to the Great Fourside City? That would take a week and would deplete most of his supplies. Surely there was a better way.

The Hero of the Winds within him perked up. What if he still had…

He reached into his inexplicably bottomless and weightless supplies and searched for the desired object, but after a full minute of rooting around, no luck. There would be no Wind Waker to teleport him to Hyrule this time.

But perhaps he could find one of Gadd's portals. On second thought, though, Link decided it was highly unlikely the professor would have installed one all the way out here (there was no reason for anyone to return). And even if he had, Link remembered Master Hand had warned him that those portals might not be safe in Xehanort's World of Heartless. So that option was off the table as well.

Off the table…

He turned again to the mouse hole and concluded he had no other choice. He would have to travel the slow way and make the best of it.

Fortunately, Link did find a tool from the Great Sea besides the Wind Waker: his grappling hook. He went over to the far corner of the table nearest the mouse hole, wedged the grappling hook around a particularly large and stable-looking piece of rubble, tugged the rope to make sure it would hold, and without further ado, stepped backwards off the edge.

Holding the rope tightly, he slowly climbed down the table leg, grateful his grappling hook was long enough to reach almost the entire hundred feet separating the tabletop from the floor. The effort of his descent put a lot of strain on his arms, but the Great Fairy Fountain's energy boost was still strong enough to give him ample ability to endure it all.

Finding himself at the end of the line, he let his feet drop off the table leg, then let go of the rope, falling the last ten feet and landing with his usual inexplicable grace (that business of being thrown down the well didn't count; not even a cat can land on its feet after having its back broken).

Link looked up at the dangling rope and sighed; he would have to leave his grappling hook here. But it had served him well. He turned and began making his way toward the cavernous mouse hole.

As he neared the sudden darkness, he couldn't help but recall Princess Zelda using Farore's Wind to teleport him, Falco, and Nana to this very spot. Hopefully, this time his trek through the Battlefields wouldn't involve Duplighosts, Shadow Queens, crazy Shy Guys, or that devilish lamp monster.

And with that last thought, he stepped through.

"Agh!"

Link jumped backward to avoid being run over by a semi-truck—which was only scary until following close behind, an angry red Wiggler the size of a locomotive barreled its way down the street, causing a panic as other vehicles swerved out of its way.

He had backed up into a dark, narrow alleyway, complete with rusting dumpsters, heaped trash bags, and loose refuse. He almost had to plug his nose from the rancid smell. A shaggy human with a cardboard sign asking for spare Coins stared at him in shock, then narrowed his eyes and scurried away into the shadows of the alley.

Fourside City, at first glance, did not look all that different from how Link remembered it. Peering out into the streets, he gathered from the overcast sky and the puddled sewage drains and the wet cement surfaces that it had recently been raining. It was such a huge megalopolis, however, that even from observing the tall business buildings around him, he couldn't tell which district he was in. The generic glass skyscrapers; the unfamiliar hole-in-the-wall restaurants; the mostly human traffic and pedestrians speckled with Koopas and Kremlings and other Nintendonian races; none of it gave him any clues, other than that he probably wasn't in some far-off apocalyptic future.

Link worried as he first stepped out onto the sidewalk that he would instantly be recognized, but to his relief, the men and women in their business suits and skirts and street clothes paid him little heed as they went about their daily business, although he did get a strange look from a Goron that happened to be passing by.

One thing Link noticed as he wandered through the streets of Fourside was that there were actually much fewer non-humans than there had once been. Other than the Wiggler that he'd had an uncomfortably close encounter with, only a handful of clearly interregional vehicles frequented the roads, whether they be Mushroom-shaped karts or F-Zero racers or Dreamlandian Air Riders.

And he soon realized that although the people were not in a state of violent, self-destructive chaos, there was an overall pall of gloom. None of the pedestrians greeted or spoke amiably to one another; the backed-up traffic was filled with raucous car horns and heated road raging; and there were no children outside—of any species—as far as he could tell. No, it was not as dramatically dark as Agahnim's Dark World or as surreal as Zant's Twilight Realm, but Link could definitely sense something off about the Nintendo he had known and loved.

He considered asking someone the date, but decided against it, worried that it would draw undue attention to himself. He'd thought his dusty golden locks and distinct Hylian face would have made him easily recognizable, but apparently the green Kokiri garbs and the Master Sword and Hylian Shield (not to mention the pointed ears, which were still concealed by his headband) played an even bigger part in his public image than he'd thought. So while he remained inconspicuous, he wanted to keep it that way as long as he possibly could.

After at least an hour of rather aimless wandering, he finally reached a T intersection with a very familiar set of buildings: to his immediate left, the Pianta Parlor casino, with its giant neon pink Pianta waving beneath a swirly neon sun; directly in front of him, the shuttle station from which he'd once embarked on his way to the Grande Snifit Hotel and the Fourside Colosseum; down the left side of the T, the towering dome and spires of the Smash Hall of Fame; and down the right side, the massive Fourside Department Store with the glass spiral skyway that connected its two halves on either side of the street. Again, everything looked more or less the same, except for the uncharacteristically negative demeanor of everyone around him.

Link stopped at the corner and thought. His first instinct was to go to the department store and buy as much equipment as his 5,000 Rupees would allow. But he worried that using such currency would give away his identity even with his pointed ears hidden, so he decided against it, at least for now. The Hall of Fame was of no interest to him, but the shuttle station definitely was. As he was to begin his search for the twelve original Smashers, Link had no way of knowing whether Ness would be here in Fourside or away in Onett, but he felt more confident that he would find Donkey Kong in the Kongo Jungle. So he would go down south, cross the Unclaimed Territory, and seek out the Kong in his family treehouse.

But in order to board that shuttle, he needed to get ahold of the more common currency of the realm, which throughout most of Fourside seemed to be either Coins or dollars. And if there was any place that would have an all-inclusive money exchange machine…

Link approached the Pianta Parlor casino, hesitated briefly at the entrance, and pulled the brass door open and went inside.

He almost immediately regretted his decision. If he'd thought the casino had been rowdy before, now it was a downright madhouse. Patrons were angrily banging uncooperative slot machines; engaging in fistfights across craps tables; hollering and laughing and screaming at each other in intense poker games. The security Piantas had their hands more than full just trying to keep greedy individuals from snatching loose Coins and barging out the doors with stolen winnings. The regular buzzing and beeping and jingling of the machines were all but drowned out by the avaricious ruckus.

The Hylian hero carefully began to creep around the edge of the glitzy establishment, looking out for exchange machines. He ducked to avoid a flying Paratroopa bouncing off the wall and then back into the fray. He jumped as he accidentally stepped on a small cream-colored Mr. Saturn.

"Oops; sorry!"

The Mr. Saturn just glared at him, tried to bite into his leather boot, failed, and scuttled away.

Finally, he reached a tall, flashing machine with the large words "CASH EXCHANGE" arching across the top. He leaned over the backlit touch screen and scrolled through the options until he found it: "Rupees to Coins." Carefully, he began pouring into the funnel in order to convert what he planned on being half his Rupees to Coins.

Suddenly, a long, noodly arm reached around his head and snatched the bag out of his hands.

"Hey!"

Link turned to see Waluigi laughing maniacally as he made off with the rest of Link's money, Rupees spilling across the floor as he went. Link seriously considered going after him, sword blazing.

Then he saw a fat figure Ground Pound from a crystal chandelier above, flattening Waluigi like a pancake, farting like a Snorlax with indigestion, and taking the bag of Rupees for himself. But as Wario began waddling away, Waluigi dived from behind him and wrapped his arms around his brother's neck. And thus they began legitimately strangling each other over what amounted to less than 200 remaining Rupees.

Didn't think those two could get any greedier, Link thought. And I was right; they could just get more violent.

Clearly, trying to recover the rest of his Rupees wasn't worth it at this point, so he shoved the converted Coins into his bag and quickly dashed out of the Pianta Parlor before anyone else could try to steal from him.

He gasped with relief as he burst through the doors and began walking toward the shuttle station. He'd known Xehanort had darkened every heart, but until he'd come to Fourside and gotten at least a glimpse of what that meant, it hadn't really registered just how alone, just how endangered he really was.

He waited for the crosswalk to flash the pedestrian sign and crossed, having to go out of his way to avoid being shoved by a giant orange-bellied Klump that didn't seem to care who happened to bounce off of him into traffic. Link passed through the sliding Plexiglas doors into the station, boarded the escalator, and came to the boarding platform. This time, he didn't want to go east to the colosseum, but as far south as it could take him. He was glad to find that one of the routes went all the way down to the border, and accordingly he bought a pass from the disgruntled woman in the ticket booth and waited.

After about fifteen minutes, it came: a sleek metal enclosure that resembled a giant silver Twinkie with round windows, riding along a smooth rail. He boarded, expecting at least a couple dozen others to join him—but no one followed. And there had been almost no one on board to begin with so that by the time he climbed on, it was just him and the black, two-dimensional operator.

Link froze as the doors slid shut behind him. It couldn't be…

But it was.

Mr. Game & Watch.

"Now de-par-ting; fi-nal sta-tion: Gadd-Ree-ka Labs and ci-ty out-skirts."

The Smasher didn't even glance behind him to see who had come aboard as he pushed a lever, causing the shuttle to boost forward and begin its 70-miles-per-hour journey.

Link was taken aback, confused both by G.W.'s disinterestedness and by the fact that Ulysses Reeka's name had been lumped together with Elvin Gadd's. Surely Reeka was soundly dead by this point, having met his demise first at the hands of a Polluted Piranha, then through a definitive process of melting, freezing, and shattering by Metal Mr. Game & Watch.

He decided to keep quiet rather than attempt to converse with the Smasher, unsure what had become of his friend's "darkened" heart. But unfortunately, after a minute or two, the conductor turned around and seemed to look him up and down, though with no sign of recognition.

"Your choice of rai-ment is ap-pal-ling," he said reproachfully. "Please put your-self in or-der as soon as you are a-ble, sir; ev-er-y-thing must have its pro-per place, and your la-zy ap-pear-ance is a dis-grace to the King's vas-sal-age, and to Xe-ha-nort's sal-vi-fic world or-der which has en-hanced or-ga-nized so-ci-e-ty these past three years."

Link said nothing, but his mind was abuzz. Who was the King? G.W. had referred to his "vassalage," so he must be one of Xehanort's Organization XIII. And…

Three years.

In the back of his mind, he knew it could have been much worse. But still, he was horrified to discover how long he'd been gone, and more than a little afraid to discover what else had become of Nintendo, of his home, of his princess during such an extended absence. It was as if he'd been snatched out of Time itself by the Hand of Fate, spent a few fleeting weeks on Koholint Island vacationing, and then been plopped right back in. He knew those weeks had been necessary for him to heal, but couldn't help feeling a creeping guilt that he alone had escaped the Heartless, and that he had missed so much. Could he really repair the damage done over three years? Ganondorf's seven-year reign had been terrible to be sure—but back then Link had returned strengthened by the Master Sword, by the Sages, and by the Triforce. Now, the Triforce of Courage on the back of his hand barely glowed at all; the Master Sword was broken, maybe irreparably; and everyone he'd once considered friends would likely turn against him if he asked for their help.

It was also then that Link really started to understand what the "darkened hearts" really meant. Whatever those Heartless had done to his friends, it had brought out the very worst qualities in each individual, and apparently their wills were bent to side with Xehanort. For the everyday citizen of Fourside, that meant dullness and irritability; for Wario and Waluigi, their already high level of greed had been complemented with an unscrupulous willingness to obtain their desires with violence; and for Mr. Game & Watch, his appreciation of order and neatness had been exacerbated in the extreme.

"Yes, of course," was all Link said.

But Mr. Game & Watch leaned forward slightly; although the round black face did not possess eyes, Link felt strongly that the Smasher was peering at him with suspicion.

"Do I know you from some-where, ci-ti-zen?"

Link quickly shook his head. "I don't think so."

"No-bo-dy takes the shut-tle to the bor-der these days; there is no point. What is your bus-i-ness out there?"

"Uh," Link said, "I'm taking a vacation."

Suddenly, G.W.'s black body flashed red, causing Link to jump back. The shuttle operator pulled out his Judgment Hammer and prepared to whack Link at a moment's notice.

"No one is al-lowed to leave their re-gion!" G.W. buzzed angrily. "It is im-pos-si-ble. Please show me your i-den-ti-fi-ca-tion."

Link thought fast. Obviously, he didn't have whatever I.D. people carried around these days, and he didn't think old letters or his fishing license would fool the pragmatic Smasher. There was only one thing for it.

G.W. collapsed, stunned, as the Deku Nut took him down with a loud snap. Link looked out the window and was grateful to find that the shuttle had nearly reached its destination, the scattered industrial outskirts stretching out until they became the yellow grass plains of the Unclaimed Territory. Smoke towers seemed to pollute the sky much more thickly than they used to. And the expansive complex of low black buildings was clearly Gadd-Reeka Labs, judging by the giant insignia of a simplified Gadd head with Reeka's diamond rims overlapping Gadd's swirling spectacles.

Link had to expend three more Deku Nuts to keep Game & Watch out of commission until the shuttle slowed as it approached a station that looked very similar to the last one. He had never operated a city shuttle before, but luckily all he had to do was pull the lever back up once it reached the station.

There was no one there to board, so there was also no one to witness Link step halfway out of the shuttle, shoot a pebble with his slingshot at the brake lever, and jump away just in time for it to take the stunned Game & Watch safely and irreversibly away—at least long enough so that by the time he or anyone else could return, Link would be long gone.

Link quickly left the station, though he didn't encounter a single person on his way out. And as he burst through the sliding glass doors and stepped out into the smoky, disgusting, nigh uninhabitable outskirts of Fourside, he quickly saw why. Only someone deeply committed to visiting Gadd-Reeka Labs would hazard such a journey.

Especially since apparently it was impossible for people to leave their region.

But how did that work? Game & Watch and a number of the Nintendonians inside Fourside certainly weren't natives themselves, and Link had crossed the border from the Battlefields to the middle of the city—albeit through an unpredictable mouse hole portal directly from Master Hand's Room. He could only hope that he would continue to have success as he left the city behind.

Link coughed frequently and his eyes watered as he walked through the lung-poisoning industrial fields; he was glad not to face any additional opposition, but that solitude came at a price, and before long he began to feel queasy and light-headed. The place seemed to bear close resemblance to what some of the Smash Brothers had described experiencing at Grunty Industries on the Isle o' Hags. By the time he finally passed the last smokestack and the dirt and cement became the tall yellow grass of the Unclaimed Territory and the sky above was anything but a sickly gray-brown (it was dusk, but with so much smog there had been no way of knowing), his lungs were practically begging for clean air, his eyes stinging as if they'd just soaked up a batch of vaporized Ghost Peppers.

He walked long enough for the last vestiges of Fourside's pollution to wear away, then found a tree stump and sat and treated his eyes with some of the eye drops he'd once gone all over Hyrule to concoct for Biggoron in exchange for a sword. Then he downed some soothing Great Fairy Spring Water (he'd managed to procure a couple bottles of it before he left Koholint) and ate several of Tarin's ripest mushrooms, enjoying a flavor feast of fried Hylian bass and fruit-filled scones from the Waffle Kingdom.

He pulled out the large fleece blanket Marin had given him (covered in seagulls, of course) and wrapped it around himself and lay on the ground, using his bag as a pillow. He watched the sun set and was overwhelmed with tiredness. Link hadn't even been back for a whole day, but he'd already made pretty decent progress, considering how long it had taken all of the Smashers to reach Master Hand's Room the first time. But coming back to find your home continent foreign and corrupt tended to wear one out, even without having had any significantly violent encounters. Yet.

Link put his trust in the Bottled Fairies in his bag to pound their glass and wake him up if anything went wrong. With the starless sky above him and a gentle breeze making him grateful for the blanket, he soon fell asleep.

Link slept all through the rest of that evening and night into midmorning the next day. He arose and stretched and rubbed his eyes and fixed himself breakfast (more mushrooms; they were too quick, convenient, and delicious to resist, and had he stayed on Koholint much longer, Link suspected he might have become as much of an addict as Tarin). And as he set off once again, he felt unusually optimistic. Today would be a good day; he couldn't explain how or why. It just would. Granted, this time he would have no shuttles to take him across the Unclaimed Territory into the Kongo Jungle, so the terrain would have plenty of time to sap that energy out of him.

It was times like these that he wished Epona were still alive, the noble horse always ready to bear him across long distances with speed and stamina and spirit. But she was dead, and his only modes of travel were his own two feet and a Roc's Feather that was only useful for crossing chasms.

Link reached the bottom of a shallow valley when the ground began to rumble beneath him. He stopped and looked around, but saw nothing. What was going on?

"Yeagh!"

He turned again to find a green Yoshi less than five feet away from him, staring at him with intelligence and urgency. This was definitely the Yoshi, Mario's friend since infancy; no other of his kind possessed that degree of independence. Which, in this case, could be a problem.

Link drew his sword and pointed it at the newcomer, the ground rumbling even more violently and a slow roar beginning to crescendo from over the hillside.

"Stay back!" he said.

"I'm not like the rest, Link," Yoshi said in Link's own tongue. "Or…not anymore. But there's no time to explain; we have to go. Now!"

Yoshi was spared the need to elaborate by the line of colored figures coming up over the top of the hill in a wide line, stampeding toward them like a mob of sentient Skittles.

It was a herd of Yoshis.

But they did not look friendly—at all. In fact, as they surged forward in a dense cluster of hundreds, Link noticed a familiar black dust trailing above and behind them—the same dust that remained after a Heartless was destroyed.

Link just stood there as Yoshi inclined his head expectantly—toward his saddle.

"Just get on!"

There was no time to think or question or second guess. He just grabbed his bag and did it.

Suddenly Link was racing across the grasslands on the most unusual of steeds. Link remembered seeing Mario riding Yoshi on several occasions, but never in a million years would he have imagined a scenario in which he would be doing it himself.

As they came up the other side of the valley, Link couldn't help but glance behind at the stampede of uncharacteristically hostile Yoshis, which were fixed on him like a flock of vengeful Cuccos. They were slowly catching up despite Yoshi's light-footed pace; carrying Link on his back didn't exactly help Yoshi in outrunning his kin.

They fled across a wide plain, pushing through the tall grass and barely able to see ahead (actually, Yoshi couldn't see at all; but Link urged him to keep a steady course).

Soon enough, they began periodically breaking in and out of the tall grass into strange crop circle-like clearings. Had Link paid close attention, he would have recognized one of them to be in the shape of the Star Fox insignia. He did notice in passing an odd arch of stones that seemed quite out of place, having no idea that it was a secret portal which had once taken Bowser, Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, and the Kongs to Corneria.

But the haphazard gaps in the grass made it that much more frightening when Yoshis began bursting through into the same clearings as their quarry, drawing ever closer, as intent on their targets as heat-seeking missiles.

And then the eggs began popping around him like bombshells. Link and Yoshi yelled as the hurled projectiles exploded dangerously close to them; one good hit and they would be done for. But fortunately, Yoshi was quite prepared for a shootout on the run.

He began eating rocks as they went along, swallowing them and tossing the resultant eggs behind him with remarkable aim, cutting off any unfriendly eggs that had a chance of meeting their mark. Link didn't know how Yoshi was able to do it all simultaneously, but he contributed by blasting eggs apart with his bow and arrows.

Finally, the tall grass came to an end altogether, opening out on a green plain that sloped down for a mile or two before coming to a sudden end against the canopies of the Kongo Jungle.

If they could just make it into the trees…

Now the herd was closing in on them from either side, the ones directly behind them held off by arrow and egg, but the ones on the fringes gaining enough ground so that soon they were almost running equally apace with Link and Yoshi.

"Cover me!" Yoshi said as he pulled out a juicy watermelon and shoved it into his mouth, chewing it frantically. Link obliged, raising his shield to block incoming eggs as his partner filtered out the juice and rinds. And then Yoshi had his Matrix-worthy moment.

He hopped and turned around, spitting out a machine-gun-like spread shot of watermelon seeds, knocking down dozens of oppressing Yoshis which, instead of falling down, dissolved into black mist.

Once Yoshi had completed his circuit and continued his run, they were less than half a mile away from the jungle, which would at least give them someplace to hide and pick off the rest of the Heartless Yoshis. The pair made good ground after their watermelon assault, but the Heartless were relentless; this time, a shroud of black dust passed clear over Link's and Yoshi's heads and assembled in front of the tree line. They coagulated and formed more of the generic insectoid Heartless—a writhing black wall with hundreds of empty yellow eyes.

They were surrounded.

"Any…ideas?" Yoshi panted.

"One." Link pulled out his Roc's Feather, hoping this would work based on what he'd observed from Mario and Yoshi's teamwork in the past. "Open wide!" He reached around and stuck the bagged object into the dinosaur's mouth, which swallowed it without questioning the strange taste.

Yoshi hopped clear over the crowd of Heartless and Flutter-Jumped to delay his fall. Then, just as they were about to plummet to their demise, white wings sprouted from Yoshi's back, and Link yelled triumphantly as they flew on, crossing the border of the Kongo Jungle seconds later. He glanced back to see if the Heartless would follow, but they seemed unable or uninterested in entering the dense jungle.

They flew for at least another thirty minutes or so, if for no other reason than to put a safe distance between themselves and the Unclaimed Territory in case the Heartless changed their minds. Then, Yoshi's wings began to flicker (the Roc's Feather sustained them for a remarkably long time), and in the interest of not freefalling through the trees, he lowered them into the canopy until they landed on a reasonably large entanglement of branches and vines where they could rest.

The now wingless Yoshi sat and leaned against a thick tree trunk, breathing heavily. "That was close."

Link, who had not been the one sprinting the whole way but was still exhausted, lay his head back on an offshoot of thick green leaves, taking a long swig from a bottle of water. "You saved me back there."

"We saved each other."

"Yeah…" As he regained his breath, Link then had time and energy to think about the strange circumstances of their meeting. "What was that all about, anyway? And how are you not…"

"Heartless?" Yoshi said. "I'm still not totally sure about that myself. But here's what I know: For most of the last three years, I was as darkened as the rest of my island. We Yoshis are kind and peaceful, but the worst quality Xehanort brought out in us was our idleness. My people have been lazing about, barely making the effort to so much as find their own food. We know little of what's been going on with the mainland, but I remember feeling this unexplainable desire to obey Xehanort and accept my darker nature.

"I'd probably still be that way if I hadn't been carried off one day by some flying white thing—I think it was a Goonie, but I'm not sure since I was half asleep. So I woke up smelling the sweetness of the Super Happy Tree, which none of the Yoshis were allowed to visit anymore. But being so close, and so hungry, and so lazy, I just couldn't help but pick off one of the Heart Fruits and savor its juicy tartness.

"Next thing I knew, my head was cleared and I saw Xehanort's world of Heartless for what it is: a prison. And I didn't know why that fruit opened my heart, but I knew I had to give it to all my brothers and sisters and save them, too."

Yoshi was becoming more emotional as he went on. "But somehow, one of the Yoshis got word that I'd eaten from the Super Happy Tree, and soon word came back from the King that it must be destroyed."

"Who's the King? Is he one of Xehanort's Vassals?"

"I think so. He rules everything west of Akaneia and Kanto: Mute City; Fourside; the Battlefields; the Unclaimed Territory; part of the Icicle Mountains; and the Kongo. But I've never seen him; I've just heard some awful stories of what he's done to people who cross him."

Link nodded. "Sorry for interrupting; go on."

"No worries. Anyway, I couldn't stop all the Yoshis coming up the hill with torches and axes. So I grabbed as much fruit as I could and made a run for it, jumping into the ocean and heading for the Mushroom Kingdom where I hoped I'd be able to give the fruit to Mario and Luigi and Peach and the rest.

"Some of them went after me, but the second they tried to step off the island into the ocean, some kind of force field pushed them back. I don't know why the same didn't happen to me, but I kept swimming—until I got sucked into a whirlpool that turned out to be a portal to the Unclaimed Territory right next to where you were.

"Not long after, those Heartless Yoshis appeared, at first trying to convince me to come back. But I knew they weren't real Yoshis, so I ran for it…and then I found you."

Link just sat there for a minute, taking it all in. "I met Mr. Game & Watch in Fourside, and he told me no one was allowed to leave their region. I wonder…were we able to pass through because our hearts weren't darkened?"

"Seems like it," Yoshi said, yawning. "So what's your story, Link?"

Link told him everything that had happened at the wedding; his fall down the well; his time on Koholint Island; the mission given to him by Master Hand; everything down to his journey from Master Hand's Room and through Fourside City to where the two of them had met.

"Wow…" Yoshi's tired look was mingled with relief, but also sadness. He looked up at the afternoon sky. "How could this happen? How could we have let This World fall so easily, so quickly?"

Link paused and considered the question. "Xehanort's different from any other villain we've ever faced. He doesn't fight us with brute force and fear like Nightmare, or with deception and cleverness like L.O.G. He fights us with our own weaknesses. He doesn't even have to fight us at all because the darkness inside us defeats ourselves."

"I guess that's what Sora meant when he said Xehanort's an enemy that can't be beaten," Yoshi said.

They sat in silence for a while, appreciating a moment of respite and the natural noises of jungle wildlife—a brief peace like they hadn't known since the beginning of the day, which for each of them had been a day unlike any other.

"Are we safe here?" Link said finally, looking down through the tangled branches and vines, which were too dense for him to see the jungle floor.

"Probably not." Yoshi stood up. "The question is, what do we do now?"

Link stood as well. "We find the rest of the Twelve, like Master Hand said. We find Sora and the Kingdom Key and free the Smash Universe from the thirteen Vassals, and then we stop Xehanort once and for all, before our universe suffers the same fate as Disney."

Yoshi nodded. "Look at this." He showed Link his remaining supply of fruit: a few banana bunches; a couple honeydew melons; several bunches of grapes; a bushel of apples; one extra watermelon; and then three fist-sized Heart Fruit, each with a face smiling at them from its soft pink flesh. Eerily enough, the three pieces appeared to be beating with a regular rhythm as if they were alive.

"I saw some Yoshis sneak some of the other fruit as they burned down the Super Happy Tree, but none of them changed like I did. These three Heart Fruit…I think they're all we have that'll open others' hearts."

Link nodded. "Then we'll have to use them wisely. And I think I know the first person we need to find."

Yoshi looked down at the jungle as well. "Donkey Kong?"

"Donkey Kong."

For hours they trudged through the jungle, wary of any carnivorous snakes or mischievous Gnawties that might try and pounce on them. The air was thick and hot and humid, and Link couldn't help wishing for a river to bathe in, although he supposed any body of water found in a place like this would probably be filled with piranhas—or worse.

Occasionally, they struck up conversation, trying to make light of their dire situation. But the truth was, things had never been quite this bad. Even when Master and Crazy Hand or Tabuu or Wizpig or L.O.G. had appeared to have the upper hand, even when a few of their dear friends fell, there had always been a trust in the basic goodness of the Smash Brothers and all it stood for. But now, Xehanort was proving that none of those things had been real, or at least not completely; even the staunchest Smash Brother had a seed of darkness that the Heartless had exploited to the downfall of the entire universe. And as if that corruption weren't bad enough, based on Sora's report of what happened in Disney, it was only going to get worse.

Somehow, though, the two heroes managed not to lose heart. Link sustained himself on his memories of Hyrule; of Zelda; of Marin and Tarin back on Koholint, occasionally listening to the soothing ocean waves echoing from Marin's seashell. Yoshi did the same through the tremendous optimism afforded by just one piece of Heart Fruit, which had kept his hope alive ever since he'd been exiled from his own island, by his own tribe.

Apparently they made better ground than they'd realized, because before the sun had even begun to set, Link spotted the first signs of the Kong Family Treehouse stretching through the trees ahead. He drew his cheap sword.

"Stay quiet; we've got to trick DK into eating one of your Heart Fruit, but if any of the Kongs see us, it'll be that much harder."

They crept forward, sticking to the shadows and slowly slinking through bushes until they came to the ladder leading up to the treehouse. Link went up first, followed by Yoshi close behind him.

The ladder brought them up to a wooden platform as evenly spaced from Cranky's Cabin in the center as were the rest of the Kong houses, which were arranged around the perimeter in an octagon, the platform with the latter being the eighth point.

It was empty. Link and Yoshi cautiously began stepping across the boardwalk, wary of each of the doors which might open and unleash an unfriendly simian at any moment. With each step, Link was afraid the boards might creak and alert the Kongs to their presence.

They reached Cranky's Cabin without incident. Yoshi looked at Link as if to say, Now what?

Link considered the other cabins. They weren't all identical; in fact, the Kongs belonging to each cabin had their names conveniently scratched into the wood over each doorway: "DIDDY"; "DIXIE"; "LANKY"; "TINY"; "CHUNKY"; "KIDDY"; "DK."

Bingo.

"I've got an idea," Link said. "Let me see one of the Heart Fruit."

Yoshi handed him one of the fruit uncertainly.

Link drew his bow and arrow, speared the fruit on the tip of his arrow, notched it, pulled back, aimed, and released. The arrow swooshed right into DK's door, sticking out with juice dripped down the wood.

The noise was enough. Link and Yoshi quickly ducked behind Cranky's Cabin and watched as the door opened and Donkey Kong appeared, glaring out with large, dark pupils at the rest of the cabins. He looked somehow wild; animalic; as if the most savage part of his ape instincts was always on edge, looking for something (or someone) to rip apart.

He found the cause of the noise sticking out of his door and pulled it out, peering suspiciously at the dripping Heart Fruit. He inspected it closely, and for a moment Link's heart sank as he thought the Kong would just toss it off the boardwalk, wasting one of their precious trio of salvific fruits.

But the savory sweetness of its smell drew DK's hunger-driven nature berserk; in one powerful motion, he pulled the Heart Fruit off the arrow and shoved it into his mouth, his every taste bud stimulated by the perfect combination of sweet and tart. Then, after several seconds, his expression changed. His dilated pupils shrunk to their normal, intelligent size. His posture became more controlled and relaxed, and he looked around with great confusion.

"Wha?"

Link and Yoshi took that as their cue to come out from behind Cranky's Cabin and approach him. Thankfully, they were not greeted by a mauling monkey, but an old friend who was very glad to see them.

"Link! Yoshi!" DK brought them both into a wide bear hug, almost squeezing the life out of them. "What's going on? Ten seconds ago I felt like a slobbering monster, but now…well, now I'm not!"

"We'll explain everything," Yoshi said. "But first, we need to get out of here before—"

A chorus of shrill chimp, orangutan, and gorilla cries sounded from the other cabins as Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky had just come out to investigate the disturbance. They said nothing, but based on the way they were flailing their arms and beating their chests and pounding their fists on the ground, their eyes dilated to a beastly degree, the three heroes had a feeling the other Kongs weren't there to host a welcome party.

"Come—this way," DK grunted urgently, and he led them down the boardwalk leading to Diddy's abandoned cabin. Link and Yoshi obliged, harboring no desire to have their limbs dismembered and eaten.

They found another boardwalk that continued into the jungle and ran down it, not daring to take the time to look behind them, the growing noise of the monkey cries motivation enough to avoid even the smallest delay.

The boardwalk sloped upward and ended in a large platform just ten feet or so below the canopy, at the center of which sat the Funky Flyer—which looked like an airplane with a giant barrel for its body, having been repaired multiple times over the course of the past several years.

DK hopped right onto the carved segment on top and started it up as Link and Yoshi followed close behind, no questions asked. But the three crazed Kongs burst onto the platform a few seconds later, and the craft wasn't quite ready for takeoff.

Peanuts, feathers, and pineapples began shooting up at them, rocking the ship and threatening to knock them off some forty feet to the jungle floor below. Link and Yoshi counteracted with Deku Nuts and eggs, but the Kongs were too nimble in their primal state (even Chunky) to fall victim.

A bellowing Chunky ran straight at the Funky Flyer and pounded his fists on it, trying to break a hole and climb up and rip them apart. But Link set off a Bombchu which curved up and over the side of the ship and blasted the gorilla away; he hadn't thought of the damage it might do to the Flyer, but fortunately the giant "barrel" was in fact much stronger than wood and withstood the blow, though it almost caused Link and Yoshi to lose their footing and topple over.

After about thirty seconds of this perilous shootout, the Flyer finally achieved a loud, steady rumble. Its jet engines slowly lifted it off the platform, the three belligerent Kongs shooting their fruit weapons all the while, but the higher the Flyer rose, the less likely it was any of the projectiles would have any effect. They shrieked and clapped and banged their fists with animalic fury, as if their banana hoard had just been robbed.

Link, Yoshi, and DK all sighed with relief as they rose above the canopy and flew away over the treetops.

"So," DK said, taking the head and steering the Flyer. "Where are we headed?"

"Away from that." Yoshi's eyes widened as he pointed to the northwest, directing their attention to a large, glowing, emerald green object heading right toward them. Fast.

"Impossible…" DK still had almost no idea what was going on, but he knew one thing: King K. Rool was dead. He had been blasted apart by the Spartan Frigate's coil gun on the shores of Dreamland in front of hundreds of witnesses. So how could the crocodile's Klaptrap-shaped airship be heading toward them now?

"Whatever that is," Link said, "it's going to tear this ship apart like a clay pot."

DK swerved the Funky Flyer to the east, and they braced themselves for impact. But to their surprise, the roaring reptilian airship passed right by them—as if they weren't even there, instead heading directly toward the Kong Family Treehouse they had just left behind.

The three Smashers looked at each other.

"Why'd he ignore us?" Yoshi asked.

"I dunno," DK said slowly. "But I think…we just met the King."

Castle Oblivion

Ganondorf inclined his head in a gesture of respect before the throne.

"You sent for me, Master Xehanort?"

"Yes."

The chamber was an almost blinding white, with pearly pillars and exquisite windows framed by multifaceted crystals that refracted the saturated light pouring in from outside. Along the walls were carvings of an insignia that looked like an upside-down heart with an arrow-pointed cross coming from the top—the symbol of the Nobodies. And at the top of the spaced alabaster steps, Xehanort sat on a simple yet elegant throne, his chin resting on his clasped hands with his usual unreadable expression.

"Lord Ganondorf…tell me the state of things in your kingdom, and in those of my other Vassals."

The Gerudo laughed softly. "All is well. The rest of the Organization are all content with their stewardships, and the inhabitants thereof are content to fall under them. As always, the Heartless make their compliance all too easy."

"Good…" Xehanort stood up and slowly began stepping down toward Ganondorf. "You will recall what I've told you of my dealings in the Disney Universe. There, I had but to seize Kingdom Hearts by forging the X-Blade and unlocking its power. However many failed attempts might have occurred along the way, it was a simple objective, one that poor Sora and his friends never had any real chance of preventing."

He stopped directly in front of his associate, his hands behind his back, his eyes burning. "However…I have found that every world and universe is unique; the rules of one do not necessarily apply to another. Here, for example, a different process is required to consummate the Smash Universe's destiny: corruption. Or rather, the exposition of the evil inside every Nintendonian, every Sonian and Microsian and other intelligent being; only then will their fate be justified. And only then will This World's Kingdom Hearts truly belong to me."

Ganondorf nodded, his own eyes two glowing coals of fiery passion. "All this you have told me."

"There are many unique aspects of This World," Xehanort went on. "One of the most troubling of which was the culture of crossing over between kingdoms that existed when I first arrived. That problem was fixed with the Heartless magic that confines every man, woman, child, and beast to their own region—or so it should be.

"You see, I have just received word from the King of the West: His informants tell him that there have begun to be…aberrations from these rules. The dinosaur, Yoshi, partook of the fruit of a certain tree which somehow freed him from the Heartless—a hazardous source that was promptly eliminated, of course. A boy in Fourside attempted to leave the city by undermining Mr. Game & Watch's carefully regulated shuttle operations. And Donkey Kong has made off in a flying vessel without his family's permission. What do you make of these incidents?"

"To me," Ganondorf said, "it sounds like the dinosaur stumbled upon a stroke of extraordinary luck in discovering such a loophole. This 'boy' from Fourside must have gotten carried away at a casino or something and been anxious to escape his debtors. And the Kong, who I have had close dealings with in the past, surely must have finally given in to his basest nature, placing his own survival over that of his own kin. That is what the Heartless were designed to accomplish, after all—to deprive those foolish enough to call themselves 'good' of all their virtues. When it comes down to it, I am sure none of these aberrations are more than the King can handle."

Xehanort listened with interest and smiled. "Well spoken, Lord Ganondorf. I have chosen my chief Vassal wisely; you know these heroes even better than I, and with the small spark of rebellion within your soul long gone, you have proven a worthy servant."

Ganondorf inclined his head again. "All made possible by your patronage, Master Xehanort."

"Nevertheless, I want you and the other Vassals to be on your guard for more of these aberrations. We could afford rebellion; we could afford even the entire Smash Brothers resurfacing and rising against us, as unlikely as that might be. We have many safeguards, many secrets, many impossibilities that they will never be able to pass through successfully. But what we cannot afford…is hope. Altruism will never be enough to defeat us, but it will delay the Smash Universe's judgment until the spell of the Heartless completes its work."

Ganondorf raised an eyebrow. "And if such hope should arise and delay their judgment indefinitely?"

"Oh…" Xehanort turned back and ascended the stairs to reseat himself on his throne. "It will not. Because eventually, judgment or no judgment, the End will come."