It Came from Lucina's Head


Chapter 12: Friends


Captain Falcon made his way the hospital wing with his fists clenched unusually tightly. He didn't stop to talk to anyone he passed along the way, but just kept on trekking through the halls like a man with a mission. He just continued mumbling to himself, "Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare," as if not saying the name would cause him to forget it. He was very thankful for the information that Meta Knight had supplied him with, and the Star Warrior made it clear that he would stay out of his business unless things got out of hand. This of course made Falcon all the more eager to return to Lucina as fast as he could without looking suspicious.

By now he had forgotten all about the original plan with Ike.

As he entered the hallway of the hospital wing, he noticed Robin up against the side of Lucina's door with his ear against it. Falcon soon found himself going from a fast walk to a speedy run as he approached the tactician.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"Shh!" Robin replied, glaring at the racer as he tried to focus on Master Hand's conversation.

Falcon came up to the young mage with hands on his hips and a look of disappointment on his face, although on the inside he was snickering.

"Can't go a day without wanting a piece of her, huh?" he said obnoxiously. "You should learn to control those animal instincts of yours."

"Master Hand is in there," replied Robin, ignoring the racer's comment. "I can't hear what they're talking about though."

"What!" said Falcon quietly before he leaned down and put his head up against the door as well.

The two Smashers ended up standing there for several minutes staring at each other and listening intently for what was going on in Lucina's hospital room. Master Hand's voice could be heard, but it was muffled beyond belief due to how far into the room they were. Lucina's voice could barely be heard at all, but Falcon could tell that the conversation they were having was not a very pleasant one.

"How long have you been standing here?" asked Falcon curiously, his helmeted ear still on the door.

"Roughly five minutes or so," replied Robin casually. "We were talking in her room earlier but Master Hand interrupted us."

"Damn right you were interrupted you little slime ball," thought Falcon internally, but retained a blank expression on his face.

"I'm not sure what he wanted to talk about," continued the mage, "but from the sound of it, it can't be good."

"You're telling me. Master Hand never leaves his office unless it's really important."

"It would be smart for us to keep our heads low then," said Robin as he glanced up, trying to make out a few more words. "The last thing we need is for him to be on our tails over something like this."

"He doesn't scare me." Falcon stood tall and crossed his arms. "And speak for yourself; I don't have a tail."

Robin gave him a queer look before returning to his eavesdropping. Falcon just ended up leaning against the wall since he could barely hear anything coming from the room anyway. Plus, he didn't want Robin to think he was trying to assist him.

The two Smashers stood in the hall and listened intently for quite some time. Half the time, Falcon thought he was picking up some key words in the conversation, but putting it all together didn't really make any sense. He constantly glanced at Robin who had his eyes closed as he tried to concentrate. If another Smasher just happened to walk by, they would have looked oddly suspicious. And if R.O.B. was watching them, hopefully he wouldn't say anything to Master Hand. It's not like they were disturbing anyone anyway; they both just really cared about Lucina.

As for who cared about her more, well, that was something Falcon was willing to debate over.

"So are you and Lucina old friends or something?" asked Falcon all of a sudden.

The question kind of took Robin off guard. Admittedly, Falcon had no idea who Robin was or what his life was like before joining the Smash Bros. It was a regular problem he encountered when it came to the newcomers. He of course wanted to get to know Lucina better the moment he set his eyes on her (but that was for a different reason entirely), whereas the other newcomers took a bit more time for him to get used to. The one thing he did notice when he first met Robin, however, was how unusually close he and Lucina were upon becoming permanent residents of the mansion. Sure, it was natural for members of the same universe to hang out consistently with each other (at least for the first few months while everything was being settled) but Lucina in particular wasn't close to most of the roster. She was kind and well-liked, but her presence mostly went unnoticed during social events.

"Old friends?" replied Robin. "I suppose you could say that."

Lucina's small circle of friends typically revolved around the rest of the Fire Emblem crew. There was Ike, who, though a bit serious and gullible at times, was initially very helpful in getting her settled with the mansion customs like the weekly game nights or the holiday gatherings. Then there was Marth, a Smasher who recently rose in popularity due to the idol image he represented towards Lucina. He was as kind and trusting as Lucina was, and just about as elegant with a blade as well. Finally, there was Robin, a mysterious young man who usually kept to himself, but was willing to open up to people who he shared similar interests with. Any other friends Lucina had such as Shulk kind of developed over time due to either constant meet ups in team battles or just reoccurring friendly conversations.

In contrast, Falcon was kind of the man in the middle. He wasn't particularly close to Lucina in any way, but was more of an acquaintance of sorts. He admired her for her looks and general attitude, as it was nice to have a girl around the mansion who "wasn't a cold-hearted beast like a certain bounty hunter." Of course, this was just Falcon's speculation.

In truth, the original point of his scheduled movie nights was to help him get to know Lucina better. All of the Smashers knew Captain Falcon to be quite the ladies' man, but his attempts at picking up chicks usually ended up in flops, mainly because most of the girls in the mansion were princesses (there was even a goddess now; good luck with that one). Ever since Lucina became a victim to these apparent nightmares, however, Falcon could feel himself wanting to get closer to her more than ever before. It really did sadden him to see her like this. Surely a girl as polite and beautiful as her deserved more than what that asshole (err, hand) of a boss was telling her.

"So that's it?" asked Falcon, trying not to sound like he cared too much. "There's nothing between you two?"

"What do you mean?" replied Robin, looking up at him curiously.

"You're both just friends and nothing more. Or am I missing something here?"

"Um… We're friends, yeah." He paused momentarily. "Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?"

"Oh, you know," said Falcon, followed by an overly dramatic laugh while he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "No reason, just curious!"

He could feel his inner conscious Falcon Punching his mind for giving such a stupid response. Another side of him, however, was quite glad to hear that Robin and Lucina were just friends.

"Lucina and I have fought alongside each other many a time in the past," said Robin, regaining his composure. "We synchronize quite well together on the battlefield, especially since she's a melee fighter while I prefer to attack from a range."

It seemed that Robin was trying to steer the conversation away from something more personal, but the fact that he mentioned himself and Lucina working well together still didn't sit easily with Falcon.

"I bet you do," replied the racer through grinded teeth.

"We usually hang out during the off hours," continued Robin casually. "Most of the time it's just her, Shulk and I, but Marth sometimes joins us on occasion."

This was all news to Falcon; he never did bother to investigate what Lucina did during her free time.

"What do you guys do?" he asked curiously.

"Usually just talk about stuff," replied Robin. "You know, the tournament, life here in the mansion, other Smashers, whatever really."

"Oh great," muttered Falcon with a frown. "You're all part of a little gossip circle."

"It's not as bad as you think. Why, she's even said a few things about you."

Now Falcon was starting to get really interested in where this was going.

"What does she say?" he asked, trying not to sound concerned at all (where in actuality it was the complete opposite).

"She thinks you're a lot of fun to be around," replied Robin with a smile. "You're the 'life of the party', so to speak."

Falcon couldn't help but grin stupidly as he imagined Lucina telling him this herself. He could picture himself standing there at the edge of a tall cliff overlooking a shining endless sea, his signature scarf majestically blowing in the wind and his abnormally huge muscles shimmering brightly under the rays of the setting sun. His overly manly and overly hairy chest puffed out from the tattered confinements of his tight white shirt, while his finely-toned legs stood firmly planted in the luscious grass. And who should be standing by his side but the beautiful Lady Lucina, who had her long blue hair down loose and fluttering elegantly in the wind. She was dressed in a clean white dress, which showed off her robust figure quite nicely, and she had her feminine arms wrapped around Falcon, her delicate fingers caressing his… chest. As the doves flew over the horizon, cooing ever so melodically as birds do, she leaned up and whispered seductively into his ear, "You're the life of the party," (however that works) followed by a small peck on the cheek and a cute giggle. Falcon just stood there with his chin held high, his arm around her perfectly curvy waist, not even caring to notice that Robin was at the bottom of the cliff, broken and beaten by the rolling waves and vast amount of sharp rocks and carnivorous fish, all the while calling the racer's name to come and rescue him.

"Falcon," said Robin, crouched on the ground by Lucina's door. "Falcon. Falcon!"

Captain Falcon suddenly jumped at attention, having been shaken free from his wonderful fantasy. He realized that the mage had been trying to talk to him this whole time.

"Huh, wha-?" he replied. "Oh whoops. Must've been daydreaming, eheh."

"Um, right. Anyway, if you're just going to stand there and not listen, would you mind doing me a favor and return these books to the library?"

Robin gestured to the two large books on the floor behind him. Of course, these were the same books that he had presented to Lucina just earlier in order to explain his findings.

"Oh, that reminds me," said Falcon all of a sudden. "Were you able to find anything in the library?"

Robin nodded his head.

"As a matter of fact, I did," he said confidently, although he didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic as he did when he told Lucina about it. "I have a theory that explains the happenings behind the first two monsters Lucina encountered in her dreams. I'm currently in the middle of trying to determine a motive."

Falcon shrugged his shoulders, pretending that he wasn't nearly as impressed as he really was with Robin's apparent progress.

"Oh, well that's good," he said casually. "Ugh, I mean, what a coincidence! I also have a theory as to what might be causing these nightmares!"

Robin raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Oh really?" he asked, somewhat doubtful about the whole thing. "Forgive my skepticism, but I find it odd how you managed to find the time to look in to such affairs when you spent your whole night in the security room."

"Just call me 'Superman.'" Falcon raised his chin up high, though Robin still wasn't buying it. Regardless, the tactician decided to humor him in hopes that his reasoning could get him a new lead on the whole mystery.

"Well, let's hear it then," said Robin as he stood up, crossing his arms and directing his full attention at the racer.

"Huh?" replied Falcon with a blank look.

"Your theory. You said you had a theory."

"Uhh," stuttered Falcon as he tried to come up with a response. Truth be told, he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to explain it. All he knew was that Nightmare was the bad guy they were after, but how all this was supposed to tie into Lucina's misfortune he wasn't quite sure. After a few seconds of standing there awkwardly and debating whether or not he should just make a break for it, the racer ended up saying, "Um, you tell me yours first!"

"Very well," replied Robin nonchalantly as he picked up one of the books on the ground. He began to tell Captain Falcon everything he had told Lucina prior, from the ghostly Pokémon Gengar to the creepy monsters known as False Characters. There really wasn't much to explain, but Robin found himself mentioning a few things over and over again due to Falcon's inability to pay attention. Still, the racer did his best to listen closely, and he even found himself nodding his head a few times as he finally began piecing the puzzle together.

Indeed, Robin's hypothesis was quite the solid contender.

"Makes sense," commented Falcon at the end of the tactician's explanation. "But Gengar, really? Wouldn't a more 'nightmarey' Pokémon have something to do with it? Like, I don't know… Darkrai?"

"My deductions are based on Lucina's descriptions and Lucina's descriptions alone," said Robin. "But it's completely possible that Darkrai could in fact be the one orchestrating this entire event."

"Well yeah, I mean it's possible for anyone to be behind these nightmares, isn't it?"

"So your theory," replied Robin, somewhat annoyed by that last statement. "Would you care to share it with me?"

Falcon could feel the words dancing on the edge of his tongue, but for some reason he just couldn't bring himself to say anything. He ended up just standing there and stuttering for a few seconds before Lucina's door finally opened, the great being known as Master Hand making his exit.

"You may now go and see Lucina if you wish," said Master Hand casually. "I have work to attend to."

Falcon raised his hand to say something in objection, but Robin jumped ahead of him.

"Would it be pointless for us to ask what you two talked about?" asked Robin seriously.

"I will not disclose any part of the discussion that took place in that room," said Master Hand as he began floating down the hall and around the corner. "However, Lucina is under no obligation to keep secrets from you."

Falcon and Robin exchanged glances with each other before darting into the room. They saw Lucina sitting upright in her bed and staring at her sheets, a very troubled look on her face.

"Lucina, is everything okay?" asked Robin with concern as he flew to her bedside. Falcon could feel his blood boiling at the sudden action, but he let it slide seeing as how Lucina was so distressed.

"It's… gotten worse," she replied as she continued staring, her eyes focused on nothingness. Falcon stood in front of her and began waving a hand to try and get a reaction, but she remained motionless. "Master Hand has taken away my sword. He… He thinks that I've been doing this to myself." She glanced down her shirt, acknowledging the various bandages wrapped around her body. "He's proposed a new plan to help get me through this."

"By taking your sword?" said Falcon. "That's got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard! How can he expect you to defend yourself now?"

"He doesn't expect anything from me," she said depressingly. "He just wants this to stop."

"We want it to stop too, Lucina," said Robin. "But I'm afraid I have to agree with Falcon on this. When you had Falchion you at least stood a fighting chance, but he's taken away the only crutch you had to lean on. Unless we can determine what's causing these nightmares, you're going to keep having them, and going into a battle unarmed is suicide."

"I don't know what to do now. Maybe I should just… I should just leave."

Falcon's eyes went wide as she said those last words.

"What!? Leave!? What do you mean leave!?" he said.

"I mean leave forever," she replied seriously. "I could resign from the Super Smash Brothers… and return to Ylisse. That way all of you wouldn't have to bear my burdens."

"That's not the answer, Lucina," said Robin sternly. "And you know it isn't."

She glanced at him, a terrible look of uncertainty filling her eyes.

"I…"

"You're not like this," continued Robin. "You're a strong and brave fighter who has slain many a foe in the past. Remember who you are, and remember where you come from. If Chrom were to walk in through that door, do you think he would want to see his daughter sitting here and sobbing because some giant disembodied hand took her sword away?"

Truth be told, if Chrom were to walk in and see Lucina in such a depressed state, he'd more than likely fly to her side and comfort her in the unexplainable way that only fathers can.

"Robin…" she said.

"The Lucina I know isn't one to admit defeat so easily," continued Robin with a nod. "She is a natural born fighter, and would sooner risk her life saving the ones she cares about than to just surrender to the forces of darkness." The mage glanced at Falcon, gesturing for him to help him out here. Falcon was more dumbstruck at how effective Robin was at handling Lucina's emotional side, but the racer got the message and jumped in just in time.

"He's right," said Falcon calmly. "It's not like you to just throw in the towel. Like, remember that time you and I were in a team battle against Donkey Kong and Bowser? We were losing so bad during the match, but we kept fighting together and we pushed ourselves as far as we could go! And we ended up winning the Sudden Death right when we thought it was all going to be over!"

Lucina did remember that match quite clearly as it was one of the closest games she had ever participated in. Just as Falcon said, they were losing for the first few minutes, being behind by a whole two stocks. Fortunately, they never gave up, and continued laying on the pressure, delivering a perfectly timed Falcon Punch Shield Breaker combo onto both foes. Falcon's reaction after that match was priceless, and she distinctly remembered him picking her up and spinning her around in celebration.

She couldn't help but give a small smile as she recalled the fond memories.

"We're with you to the very end," said Robin, putting a hand on top of hers, "so long as you'll give us that chance."

She stared into Robin's eyes, and then her gaze turned towards Falcon, who stood tall and gave her a confident thumbs-up with a wink. That was when she realized that she wasn't alone in all of this. She had her friends, and they were all doing their best to make sure she could pull through. She felt a sudden warm sensation building up inside her.

"You're right," she said. "Forgive me for acting so reckless. Master Hand's words kind of left me frazzled."

"Take my advice," replied Falcon. "Don't listen to Master Hand. He may run a business, but the guy's got zero interpersonal skills. You can't really blame him though. I mean, if I were a giant bodiless hand, I'd be pretty pissed about my life too."

Lucina couldn't help but giggle at the racer's comment, causing Falcon to chuckle as well. Robin just smiled, as he was more than content with hearing Lucina's laugh again. A sudden knock at the open door caused all of the Smashers to glance in the direction. Ike and Shulk were standing at the room's entrance with surprised looks on their faces.

"Are we interrupting anything?" asked Shulk.

"Not at all," replied Lucina, though she was wondering why Ike and Shulk were together. "Please, come in."

The two swordsmen joined the other Smashers in the room around Lucina's bed. It was actually quite a funny sight. If another Smasher were to walk by and peer in, they'd more than likely wonder what they heck was going on in here.

"Hey Ike!" greeted Captain Falcon. "How was lunch?"

"It was fine," replied the swordsman casually. "It would have been nice if you didn't run off on me like that."

"Oops, sorry. Yeah, I kind of forgot to tell you that-"

"I know. Don't worry because Shulk here was kind enough to volunteer some of his time today."

"Hello!" said the Homs boy cheerfully.

"So now he knows about all of this," muttered Lucina. "Forgive me Shulk for hiding all of this from you. I did not mean it in a bad way."

"Don't worry about it," replied Shulk. "I understand completely. What matters now is that you're here and that we can tell you what we found out about the villains."

"This should be interesting…" said Robin to the side.

The two Smashers explained to the others that basically, Bowser, King Dedede, and Ganondorf didn't have anything to do with the nightmarish happenings. They were more or less clueless as to why anyone's dream would come to life and try to kill them. Oddly enough, Ganondorf proved to be the most useful out of all of them as he was able to give a good explanation on the third creature from Lucina's dream.

Apparently, the "hand" monster that had tried to strangle Lucina in the previous night was none other than a Wallmaster, a creature commonly found guarding dungeons in the Hyrulian realm. It was not trained to attack, but to defend, hunting down unwanted travellers and carrying them to the exits of the dungeons. Why a Wallmaster would appear in Lucina's dream and start choking her to death they still weren't sure about. Nevertheless, the explanation was quite well received since it did not conflict with Robin's own theory, so for the time being they decided to take the King of Evil's words as fact.

Immediately thereafter, Lucina apologized to Falcon and Ike for the harsh attitude she gave them when she last spoke with them, but the two Smashers were fine with it. She reassured them that at the time, she was tired, and just wanted to catch up on the much-needed sleep that she had previously missed. Lucina then told her friends about her meeting with Master Hand and how he had taken her only weapon away from her. She stated that his reasoning behind the seemingly reckless decision had to do with her own safety; however, she was convinced that not having her sword with her was only making the situation more dangerous than it was before. Now she found herself in a bit of a hard place, unsure of how to proceed into the next evening.

Given the current circumstances, the Smashers would not be able to get any further answers until the next day, meaning that Lucina was going to have to go at least one more night of hell. It was a puzzling dilemma, of course, until Robin was able to come up with a temporary "bandage."

"Perhaps one of us should stay here for the night with you in case something goes wrong?" he proposed.

Lucina was hesitant to reply, as whether or not she was comfortable with that plan depended on who was staying.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked.

"It's the best one we've got so far," said Robin reassuringly. "If something does go wrong in the night, at least someone will be here to wake you up from your sleep. Think of it as a kind of failsafe in case another monster decides to show up."

Ike nodded his head in agreement.

"It sounds like a good plan," he said. "I'm all for it if you guys are."

"Are there any objections?"

Eyes glanced from Ike, to Lucina, to Shulk, and then finally to Captain Falcon. No one had said anything, but Falcon really wanted to say something along the lines of, "Only if I get to be the one to stay here!"

"Well, if you're sure this is the right way," commented Lucina, "then I suppose we'll have to go with it."

"The question is," said Ike, "who gets to stay behind? There's only one other bed in here after all."

Falcon immediately raised his hand, a strong look of determination on his face.

"I'm willing to risk my life for her!" he cried. "Ugh, I mean, I'll do it. I've been meaning to give these dream-freaks a piece of my mind."

"With all due respect, Falcon," replied Robin, "I think it would be best if the candidate was either Shulk or I. Both you and Ike lost a lot of sleep last night because of the night watch."

"That's true," said Ike, crossing his arms. "We still need to catch up on our rest. If Master Hand finds out we've been faltering in matches because of sleep loss, he'll have our heads."

"But… But… But…" stuttered the racer. He really couldn't think of a good response to trump Robin's point.

"Dammit!" he thought. "I knew that little bastard was after her this whole time!"

"So who's it going to be then?" asked Shulk.

"We'll let Lucina decide," replied Robin calmly.

Lucina suddenly felt uneasy with such a decision being thrown at her. She didn't want the Smasher who she didn't pick to think wrongly of her, so she quickly came up with a response that made her decision justifiable, even by Falcon's standards.

"I would be fine if Robin stayed," she said casually. "We've slept together before anyway." She closed her eyes and nodded before realizing how that last sentence came out. "Um, not like that!" Her face started to get a little red with embarrassment and she began frantically waving her hands. "I meant we've spent nights together alongside our allied forces when we travelled Ylisse."

Shulk gave a small smirk while Ike just nodded, understanding what she originally meant to say. Falcon frowned, glancing at Robin whose cheeks were also turning a bit red.

"Ugh, well that settles it then," said Robin, quickly regaining his composure. "I'll spend the night with Lucina… Um, I mean I'll stay here and keep watch over her while she… uh…"

"There's really no better way to word that is there?" chuckled Shulk.

"Okay, well if you're staying here tonight, you better not try anything funny!" said Falcon, giving the mage a glare. "And so help me if anything bad happens to her, you're gonna have to answer to me! You got that?"

Robin put his hands up in defense.

"Easy there, Falcon," he replied. "And don't worry; I understand."

"I mean it! Hey, are you even listening to me?"

"Calm down you two," interjected Ike. "This isn't worth killing each other over."

The mage and the racer continued bickering while Lucina just stared at them with a confused look on her face. Ike just put a hand to his head in disappointment while Shulk got a good laugh out of the whole scene.

The Homs boy was soon interrupted, however, when the Monado struck him with a vision.

The scene played through his head in a matter of seconds, but it was enough time for him to analyze the scenario. He could see the room they were standing in, only it was nighttime, and Lucina and Robin were both asleep in their respective beds. A third unidentifiable person soon entered the room and crept silently across the floor. In the figure's hand was a knife, though it was hard to tell which hand the intruder was holding it in. The knife was raised high and plunged deeply into the chest of one of the Smashers lying in the beds, a splash of blood clouding Shulk's view of the attack. He couldn't tell if it was Lucina or Robin who had been so brutally stabbed to death.


Author's Note: Thank you to… pokemonrhoades, Dapper Dee VI, Pitta, Gamerfan64, Varanus K, CavalierShark, Aurawarrior13, Hahli Nuva, Lizardon, MahNati, and crazycarl364 for reviewing, as well as to any other readers who have made it this far. I found it kind of funny how all of my reviewers shared a very similar opinion towards Master Hand. That "jerk" personality was kind of what I was aiming for when I brought him into this story, so I'm glad to see that it worked. The more chapters this story is getting, the harder it is for me to write, mainly because I have to keep track of what every character knows at every point in the story. That's kind of the reason why I brought all five of them together at the end there, just to make sure they were all on the same page. As a side note, chapters 3, 4, and 8 have been updated with less ambiguous titles (for example, chapter 4 has been renamed from "Doubts" to "Samus' Advice"). In other news, I think this chapter is now the longest one, hitting almost 5000 words exact. Also, I had way too much fun writing that paragraph about Captain Falcon's fantasy. Lastly, I kind of pushed the RobinxLucina pairing a bit this chapter, but I'm leaving the door open for Falcina since this story could honestly go either way. Is there a particular pairing you support? Anyways be prepared, because next chapter, the fourth encounter will be upon us… (dun dun DUN)!