Let me take a moment, before I proceed, to acknowledge another reviewer:

Shadow Minamoto: So far you're the only reviewer to whom I've confided "the one thing needful" (well, actually two) to revive the dead Smashers, even though I'm sure I've given another, crystalicios, some idea of what must happen before the Smashers are reunited. (And that's probably because you asked why Mewtwo died. Well, essentially, he went to the netherworld to hopefully bring the rest of the dead Smashers back from it.)

But enough about that. Without further ado...

Rallying the Survivors

"Set a course for the N-gate just before Venom," Fox McCloud commanded to the Great Fox's autopilot system, ROB, explaining to the Starfox team, "I need to go to the ITC and summon all the Smashers Nephorius hasn't killed yet. They need to know what Falco discovered, if they're not at the Centropolis already."

Within ten minutes the Great Fox was in the Intergalactic Travelers' Center. Fox was able to exit his flagship—and was immensely relieved to recognize the ship in the next landing bay as the Falcon Flyer. Below that ship stood Captain Falcon, flanked by a Gamemaster's agent and an Assault Team. But even that relief was small compared to seeing Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo nearby and mercifully safe—very clearly, Captain Falcon had braved all in order to rescue the four Earthbound children.

Ness looked agitated as he ran to Fox. "What happened? I heard the agent say something about Falco being blown up after he made an important discovery…" Ness began, but he stumbled over his words.

Fox set down the stone inscribed with the poem. "Falco did discover something that could prove very important," he answered. "We need to gather up as many survivors as we can—from what I know, Nephorius is on the move and we need to act fast," he explained to Ness, picking up the stone again to carry it to the lobby and set it down on a table there.

Ordering the Assault Team to stay with Paula, Jeff, and Poo to protect them, Captain Falcon followed Fox and Ness to the lobby. "I take it that what's carved on that stone is what Falco Lombardi discovered, that might have led to his being killed?" he questioned. Following the Smashers' lead, the Gamemaster's agent delivered an order to headquarters that all other surviving Smashers must be summoned to the Intergalactic Travelers' Center.

It took nearly half an hour for the Smashers to answer the summons, and when they were all gathered in the lobby, there were fewer among them than expected: only Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Kirby, Samus Aran, Marth, Roy, and Pikachu could make their way there. The rest, it was reported, were dead by means as various as they themselves were.

And a few of those gathered bore signs that they had been grieving for lost loved ones: Pikachu's red cheeks were stained with tears, and Link's eyes were almost as weeping-reddened as Mario's.

"So few survivors?" asked Ness, highly dismayed.

"I hope you all have an idea of why we were all summoned to gather here," Fox announced to the gathered Smashers. "Many of you, including myself, have lost close friends and loved ones. A few of you have lost enemies, as well. With each death that has occurred, I'm sure that you've wondered, 'who did this?' Read this inscription, and you will know the name of the killer."

Link stepped forward and proceeded to read aloud to fellow SSBM fighters:

"That which was created to be of great power is given up, a sacrifice made to restore those lives which are lost, but here is what must be done:

When death on swift and evil wing

Come to fighters renowned that live,

Defeat Nephorius, that vile thing—

He that end untimely doth give.

And in that bleakness where grief does thrive

It need not flow in fountain water:

A single tear will life revive

When first to fall is proven faltered."

"But then Mewtwo didn't actually die at the hands of this 'Nephorius' villain…he sacrificed himself to give us this knowledge…" remarked Ness, who had sensed Mewtwo's death earlier and understood the part of the inscription before the poem.

"Then Mewtwo went to the netherworld, as it were, to try and bring his fellow Smashers who died back to life—because this poem looks like a spell to revive the dead," concluded Marth of Altea. "We need to find Nephorius and defeat him, and then one of us sheds a tear, and then our fellow fighters will be revived."

Mario and Luigi both looked dismayed at this task. "But that's the problem—how do we find Nephorius and defeat him?" asked Mario. Luigi merely shrugged.

"Pika…" said Pikachu unhelpfully.

"It's not going to work," announced Samus Aran irritably. "Even when we do defeat Nephorius—'A single tear will life revive / When first to fall is proven faltered,'—it's no use; Princess Peach was the first to die, and she was already 'proven faltered.'"

Mario was angry at this slight against Peach. "How is that?" he demanded to know of Samus.

"Think about it, Mario, just for a moment," demanded Samus in an equally angry tone. "Gallivanting after a group of children who got wormholed—alone—as unprotected as she was on that Hoverboard—fighting enemies too strong for her—Peach couldn't have possibly realized the risks involved; it's no wonder she failed to rescue the kids."

"You can't accuse her of not trying—Peach did everything she could for me and my friends! Don't you dare talk about her like that after all she did!" cried out Ness hotly, struggling against Roy's restraining hold. Out the corner of one eye, Ness saw Mario looking equally ready to pummel Samus, similarly restrained by Luigi.

Link let out a groan. "It's not worth you three getting into a fight here in the ITC," he told Mario, Samus, and Ness. "In any case, I don't think that it's on that point that Peach was wrong."

"Besides which, if all it took to revive the dead was one tear, no one else would have died," remarked Captain Falcon with a pointed look at Mario from under his visor. Mario seemed embarrassed to have made such a cake of himself as he did by sobbing uncontrollably in the Intergalactic Travelers' Center upon receiving the news of Peach's death; he blushed as red as his monogrammed hat at Falcon's words.

"When first to fall is proven faltered…' But what could Princess Peach be wrong about, if a single tear would prove her wrong?" wondered Roy aloud. Yoshi muttered something inarticulate, and Donkey Kong scratched his head.

Samus clicked her tongue impatiently. "I tell you, it's not going to work," she told her fellow Smashers again.

"And you, Samus Aran, would be right on that score!" called out a booming voice as the ground shook beneath the Smashers' feet.