HOORAY! 151 REVIEWS! *throws confetti at Hershel the plot bunny, who then tries to eat it*
Okay, I lied; I'm going back to my old way of thanking reviewers. I like it better. :) Ignore the length.
Thanks to Sir Starll; yes, I'm back to the original way of reviewing. XD And I was never really into Pokemon, so I'm sorry I messed up the Skarmory thing. ;_; ~ Thanks to SgtPeppersLHCB; Yep, Quincy is turning out to be a naughty child. XD ~ Thanks to RaymondDullstone; Wow, you were waiting a whole week? I feel loved. :) Yes, Pit needs some help. I'll deal with that eventually. ~ Thanks to Foxpilot; The anime I'm so tied up in is actually Death Note, if you can believe that. Agh…I'm a horrible person, but I'm so caught up in it. XD "Justice will prevail!" ~ Thanks to Jenakin Ramsobi; Thanks for jumping on the bandwagon—and no, I've never read the fanfic that Quincy almost quoted (creeeeepy). ~ Thanks to Upsilon Four; Quick! Charge the iPod! Their batteries are so short, right? ~ Thanks to PKLOVEOMEGA; No! Marth is mine! (jk!) And yes, Roy is short. It's part of his charm. XD ~ Thanks to RawkHawk2.0; Roy IS staying! ~ Thanks to MessengerOfDreams; WOOT! Thank you so much! ~ Thanks to Azura; that was possibly one of the funniest reviews I've ever read. I almost fell out of my chair laughing about poor Scampers. XD Thanks! (Yes~the~tilde~is~squigly~XD) ~ And a final thanks to Lord Lithos Maitreya; Last chapter! They'll be back to normal soon!
So apparently I freaked a few people out when I said that this chapter would be the next one. Don't worry, I'm only done with the arc. THE STORY GOES ON! Still, I was touched by how many people were actually upset. XD That's awesome! Please keep it up!
Disclaimer: No SSBB/Nintendo people, fictional or living belong to me. And while I'm here, please pray for Japan and their tsunami/earthquake disaster. ;_;
Please read, enjoy, and then review! (and please ignore any typos-I'm awful at catching them)
Chapter 21: The Divide: Part 7
"Sir," Marth said to the camera. "I believe that after what you just saw, there is now no doubt about what Genevieve has planned to do to this place—what she's already done to this place."
"He doesn't understand you!" Genevieve screeched, grasping at straws.
"Of course he does," Marth said matter-of-factly. "Like most Japanese, he has a rudimentary grasp of English. And even though he might not understand everything I say, I made sure there was a translator there as well who can." His eyes flashed as he turned on his heel to look at the assembled brawlers, and then back at Ike. "Sorry about your face. I didn't expect that."
"How did you get here?" Ike demanded.
"Through Pit's window," Marth said in a 'duh' sort of tone. "By the way, where is Pit? He wasn't in his room."
"He's here," Samus said, herding the angel out from behind her back. Marth worked hard to tear his eyes away from Samus in her pajamas, feeling as if he had been away from Brawl for much longer than a week, and looked down at Pit. The sight made his stomach drop, as if he had missed a step on a staircase.
"Pit!" Quincy screeched, nearly dropping the camera. "What happened to you? !"
Marth was momentarily at a loss for words. Pit looked haunted. His eyes were deep set in dark pools of shadow and looked…lost.
"What happened to him?" he asked Samus, his blue eyes meeting her own desperately. He had prepared himself for big changes, but for some reason he never guessed something would happen to someone so innocent.
"I don't know," Samus breathed. "He had a mental breakdown or something."
Quincy made a sound that almost resembled a sob, but the hands that held the camera remained steady as he zoomed in on Pit's tortured face before returning to Marth.
Marth wanted to run to Pit and grab him by the shoulders and shake the youth until he returned to himself, but he forced himself to swallow his rising rage and channel it into more productive actions.
He spun on his heel, trying to appear much calmer than he felt as he shouted at the camera, "Sir, surely you cannot condone this! I'm not entirely sure what the plan was originally, but I hope dearly that Genevieve had deviated from it! If she is following your orders, well…" He clasped his hands behind his back, forcing his voice to quiet. "…Then our problems are bigger than I thought. I'm choosing to think that you would never deliberately order that. Whatever your plan originally was, it's gone wrong. Look, Sir," he continued. "I understand that you thought that cross-over relationships may have been a bad idea, but just look at us!" His voice rose again, and he quickly clamped down on his emotions before he started screaming. "Look at Pit. That's not right! Look, we can make this work, if you just give us a chance!"
Genevieve scowled. "Marth, you have no place here. There is no longer an 'us' that includes you."
"Maybe I don't," Marth snapped, his eyes flashing furiously. "But everyone else here does, Genevieve! How dare you ignore their wellbeing? ! You knew about Pit and you did nothing to help him!"
Quincy panned over the crowd without having to be told to do so and settled on Pit for a moment before turning back to Marth.
"Roy does not!" Genevieve snapped, her hair flashing the color of fire in the florescent hallway lights. "Roy stole your place! He has no place here! You should be standing where he stands and you both know that!"
Roy looked down at the ground.
Marth's expression didn't change. "All of us have a place here, Genevieve. It's you who doesn't belong."
It was the tone of his voice that made her snap. It was rebuking, but his voice somehow remained calm; almost gentle as he delivered the words softly.
Her head flipped up defiantly, red curls rippling off of her shoulders. "How dare you speak to me like that!"
"I will speak to you however I like!" Marth snapped, his voice rising to a yell as his brain was overrun with the simple desire to just be rid of Genevieve and everything she stood for. "Seeing as I was dismissed from Brawl, you are no longer my senior! And besides, I can invoke my proper title of Altea if you wish—and in that case, you should be the one guarding her tongue, not I!"
"Prince Marth is back," Link whispered to Samus, managing to sound annoyed and happy simultaneously. It was a rare occasion when the Brawlers were actually appreciating Marth's holier-than-thou speech.
"You are not a prince!" Genevieve cried. "You are a silly little boy from a make-believe world who refuses to be dragged into the real one!"
"Do you even realize that you're saying all of this on film?" Marth asked bitterly, gesturing towards Quincy.
"Besides," Marth snapped. "If I'm a silly little boy, then what are you? A silly little woman?" He crossed his arms as Genevieve fumed. "If I'm in a fake world, then where are you? You say that I don't live in the real world, but what is real? Am I real? Are you real? Is Altea real? Is Earth really real, or is there something bigger that we can't see?"
About half of the Brawlers were stifling smiles at this point, and the others had tried to follow Marth's conversation and were on the verge of sitting down from dizziness.
When Genevieve didn't answer, Marth shrugged dismissively and then turned back to the camera. "Sir, I'm not sure if you heard my speech before I was promptly kicked out, so I'll restate. You treat us like your property, like you trinkets—your chess pieces, so to speak. My issue isn't really with that fact—we came here of our own free will, and gave you permission to order us around in exchange for you giving us a fun place to stay for awhile. This place was supposed to be fun, as you recall. You told me that when you first invited me."
Genevieve started and then glared at the camera again. "He's delusional! He's totally insane! He actually believes that he's from somewhere else!"
"I know I'm from somewhere else," Marth retorted, sparing a single glance at the red-haired woman before looking back at the camera. "Because I am definitely not from the same world as you. But you've probably never even tried a portal, so how would you know?" His mouth quirked up in a slightly unhinged grin. "Sorry, Sir. She keeps interrupting. I was about to say that you've created the perfect chess board out of you trinkets here. We're all resigned to be—we're usually happy to be—your knights, bishops, rooks, pawns…whatever. But what we object to…" He thrust a finger in Genevieve's direction. "…Is you trying to make her our queen.
"And mark my words, Sir; we came here of our own free will, and so help me we will leave here of our own free will if you back out on your end of the promise. You said we would have fun here—you said we'd be safe here!"
He pivoted in a slow circle, arms outstretched, and in that moment he looked nothing like a teenager in weathered jeans and an oversized sweatshirt; he looked like a king.
"Well look around!" he sneered. "We're not having fun. We're not safe. The king and queen are supposed to protect their citizens. When a queen strikes her subject…" Marth extended a hand towards Ike; more specifically to the red smear that still marred his face. "…And ignores the needs of her people…" The hand moved towards Pit. "…Then she is no longer fit to be a queen! In Altea—and here too, I think—we have a different word for that: a tyrant!
"And do you know what happens when a country is ruled by a tyrant?"
"The prince runs away for two years? !" Genevieve screamed. "Leaving his mother behind to die? !"
Marth's face darkened. "Would you please make up your mind" he snapped, his voice tighter than it had been a moment ago. "Does Altea exist or does it not? Are you a queen or a tyrant?"
"I'm with Marth," Ike said bluntly, stepping up to put himself in the camera frame.
"Me too," Samus said, detaching herself from the crowd to come and stand by him as well.
Marth shook his head, and turned around to face Genevieve. "It's not like that. It's not who's with me; it's who I'm with." He stepped backwards, his back brushing against Link's sleeve as he stood with the Brawlers. Samus and Ike followed suit, blending back into the crowd as everyone simultaneously turned to face the same direction as Marth; at Genevieve. Quincy skipped backwards to catch the whole shot.
"I'm with these guys," Marth said. "And you're not, Genevieve." He smiled again, this time it was serene instead of unhinged.
"Get out. This is our land, and we won't have you messing it up." He shot a final glance at the camera. "So do you know what happens when a country is ruled by a tyrant, Sir? There's a revolution."
There was a long silence between the Brawlers and Genevieve, who was still standing defiantly in the hallway.
"Cut," Marth said softly after a few minutes.
The red light on Quincy's camera blipped off and the pokemon trainer set it down on the ground to come and join the group of Brawlers.
"Do you honestly think that's solved your problems? !" Genevieve laughed. "You're even more naive than I thought!"
Marth was no longer listening. He was crouched next to Quincy, who had run to his friend's side and was trying to talk to Pit, who looked as despondent as ever.
Link had taken up the head of the group, actually standing elbow to elbow with Ganondorf, of all people.
"Get out," he snapped at Genevieve, repeating Marth's words. "There's no place for you here anymore."
Ganondorf cracked his large knuckles ominously, wondering when he had started to enjoy this place so much that he was willing to stand next to this little 'hero' to continue it.
Genevieve was apparently startled by the short alliance as well, and started to say something when her phone chirped from a pocket.
"That'll be Miyamoto-Dono," Marth guessed. "I would advise you look at that."
She numbly plucked the silver device from her jacket pocket and flipped the phone open, looking at what appeared to be a text message with an odd expression on her face.
"Let's go," Marth said as he stood up, disappointed that Pit was still out of it. "No one here but people to leave, if you'll pardon the cliché. Come on, Roy, you can crash in my room tonight if they haven't given you a bedroom yet."
Roy blinked. He had been temporarily forgotten in the excitement of the moment, but now everyone turned in unison to look at him.
"You're not asking me to leave?" he asked after a moment.
Marth shrugged, and then looked at MewTwo, who was characteristically silent. "Do either of you want to leave?"
"Well…" Roy frowned. "She was kind of right. I'm in your place."
"We can always have another Fire Emblem guy hanging around," Ike suggested. Roy's head snapped around to look at him, and Marth suppressed a smile, wondering what Ike had said to Roy to make him react that way.
"Besides, if you're leaving because you're ashamed of what you did, that's no better than just running away from your problems," Link supplied, then slung a brotherly arm around Roy's shoulder. "Besides, it's been way too quiet around here. Ike doesn't talk as much as you."
Roy's eyes sparkled briefly, then he blinked quickly several times and they were back to normal.
"Thanks," he whispered, his voice choked.
"I'll take my leave," MewTwo said in its deep voice. "I have better things to do."
Quincy saluted it, and it nodded briefly at the pokemon trainer and dipped its head politely at Marth. With no other words, MewTwo walked down the hallway towards the portal.
Ike smiled softly and turned around, pleased that things seemed to be working out. But the moment he turned around, he saw something that proved him wrong.
"MARTH!" he and Samus screamed at the same time, and the Altean whirled, unprepared, as Genevieve flung herself at him with an animalistic scream, murder in her bright eyes.
Marth started to yell a swear word but didn't have time to complete it before Genevieve was flung to the side—tackled by someone with wings.
Before anyone really had a chance to process what had happened, Pit back flipped off of Genevieve, his bare foot slamming into her neck, causing her to crumple.
He staggered back, his face dazed as he fell against Ike, who reflexively caught the angel's elbows to stop him from collapsing completely.
"Is it over?" Pit asked in a small voice, sounding as if he had woken up after a week-long sleep.
"Yeah," Ike told him as everyone looked at the unconscious Genevieve sprawled across the carpet, her red hair fanning around her head like some sort of sick halo, the sleek cell phone still in her hand with the text message 'contract terminated' written across the screen. "It's finally all over."
So I actually wrote this whole chapter out a few days ago and then realized yesterday afternoon "Oh no! I completely forgot Pit!" so I had to go back and edit the whole thing. So I apologize if part(s) of it seems sort of spliced together, because it kind of was. ;_;
I couldn't bring myself to actually kill Genevieve, but she'll have a hard time finding a job after this little internet-published event…So there you go.
The next chapter is either going to be "Psychiatrists" or "The Beach," depending on which I feel like. XD
And I'm sorry about the wait in-between chapters—it's getting longer as I get caught up with other things. ;_; Hopefully they'll be back up to their normal speed soon!
Please review!