Hey everyone, Paradigm of Writing here with a brand new chapter of Icarus Chronicle, #21: Palutena's Intervention. Last chapter, things happened, and oh boy did they cause so many plotlines to either be cut off now intertwining each other into a mysterious rope. (That analogy made sense somewhere in my mind) Last chapter, we had a penultimate event(s) cross the screen... firstly, Roy and Lucina have admitted their feelings for each other (again, a few of you predicted this). Then we had Shulk die... (no one predicted this actually, which I found funny), and that our hero Pit has resurrected Kuro Icarus from the damned cube (like 90% of you got this right, A+). Our real villain is here and he's here to stay for longer than just four chapters. Anyone miss him? I sure as hell did. I apologize for the late update, just haven't had the time to sit down and give this my full attention. I may not be completely finishing this piece by the end of November which is my ideal plan but I realize would cause rushed writing and my writing when rushed is not good, and I cannot do that to my readers, by making them slough through my crap. At this chapter coming up, I'm currently two updates behind schedule, but that's not a problem. We'll get to it if we can, and when we can, yeah? Thank you to Mr. Squirtle 6 and eclipse's end for reviewing. Enjoy Chapter #21: Palutena's Intervention.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. ~ Proverbs 22:6
The moon was hanging low in the Skyworld sky, it's beautiful beams dancing towards the ground in frenetic movements of shine and sparkle. Kuro stood underneath one of the beams, his head titled back, eyes shut as he took in all the sounds of the world around him. Each beat and harped chord fizzled deep into his senses, feeling the tremor of sadness and pain beneath his feet. Too good. Almost like a euphoric orgasm after intercourse without the intimacy.
Kuro sighed to himself, clenching and unclenching his hands into fists. The cold breeze of the mountaintops and rivers blew over him like an icy coating of surreal warmth. It's been too long since the dark angel has last felt the elements of Smash around him, welcoming him home to the world he left without choice. He had half the heart, half the want to show all of Smash what being pushed inside the Icarus cube did to him, but another matter for another place when the time was right.
Seeing Pit's joyous expression as the king announced his brother's return to the populace saddened the amber eyed angel momentarily. The brunette still had no idea what had happened and though there would never be a time when Kuro would flat out tell the truth, it did feel disheartening at certain moments knowing that two inseparable brothers sewn at the hip had the most enormous lie of them all actually keeping them quite distant from each other.
He opened his eyes, the balance of everything around him shifting slightly by one new individual to the environment.
Mother.
For Smash's sake, this woman was never going to learn.
"Miss me?" Kuro asked coldly, eyes stuck stone cold at the star lit sky. He would not give her the time of day from with even bothering to look at her.
A flash of iridescent hair passed over the angel's line of sight, but at that Kuro resisted harder. Palutena Icarus settled herself to float only an inch from the ground, her sandaled, ghostly, see-through feet acting like beacons of light. The ghost of the Icarus twins' mother gave an approving nod. "Though I am sure not happy to see you, I did miss you."
"If this is all you came by to say, leave me and go to Pit." Kuro snarked to her sharply, then deciding that this would be for the best, snapped his vile amber gaze at her, but this time Palutena did not flinch. Instead, the ex-queen of Skyworld smiled wryly. "You've been in that cube for a very long time, my boy. Pit has banished me from being in his sights. Though he has no power over the dead and what they do, as his mother I will respect that. I haven't been around in a very long time, actually. Skyworld still feels the same."
"No it doesn't," the dark angel snorted. "This place has the sense of wickedness and darkness clouding over it. Shulk's taint of this land has yet to leave it, and I hope it does sooner than later. His necromancy needs to step aside for the greater of two evils. Me."
Palutena cocked her head to one side, looking quite hilarious, but with her furrowed together brow and appraising eyes that hinted at a steel complexion, the warrior side of her came through. "The ego did not deflate like I had hoped. You're a teenager who has serious jealousy issues."
Kuro laughed to himself. Being stuck in the cube did nothing for him. "Roy and Lucina are fools if they think that what they did spared Smash any second of peace. I am not jealous. Now I do have a personal vendetta against the two kingdoms of Lycia and Ylisse, not just feudal a dispute. They tried killing me, and they tried killing my brother. One ruler trying another's life breaks several accords."
"Pit attacked Roy as well." Palutena reminded him.
"Out of self-defense. The only reason Pit went to Eagleland was because Roy had the idiotic decision to uproot the cube from the sanctuary. Destroying an artifact placed in Eagleland for safe-keeping, to then be desecrated on the same lands is one of the most crucial laws here and he broke it. It is more than enough reason to go after what I want. Roy and Lucina's bodies mounted on a stake while their lands burn. Seems fitting."
"You're still a monster..." her gaze fell to the ground out of complete exhaustion, and once mother to perhaps the most evil individual in Smash floated away to now be on the terrace overlooking the kingdom she once ruled.
Kuro stomped after her, and though he could not grab Palutena by the shoulder and cause her to face him, the yelling certainly made up for it. "I am a god! I am a ruler of Smash, something you never let me be!"
She locked eyes with him, and the sharing of memories and thoughts passed from mother to son in the blink of an eye. Kuro's first black feather sprouting from his back, causing the young boy so much pain. So much scarlet coating the bed sheets and floors. To have Pit come running in at the noise, and then the same phenomenon take place in his own body proved to much for Palutena to handle. With her powers of nature, she tried transforming the kids' bedroom into a natural paradise, but despite the measure, the emerald glade grass floors ran ripe ruby red with the blood of both twins. Palutena had cupped the side of Kuro's face, examining his pale jaw, wiping away a droplet of blood, before kissing him to alleviate all the pain.
On the terrace, the same event happened, Palutena cupping Kuro's face with the gentle force that a mother would usually execute. Kuro shuddered at the airy feeling of something being there without truthfully, wholesomely being there.
"What changed, Kuro? What happened to you that caused this bitterness, this blackness in you?" she asked, and with the expression highlighted behind her eyes, there was no way to lie to her.
He swallowed, and a lone tear slid down his cheek. "You. Pit. Everyone," He was going to be as cryptic as he wanted, turning away from her. "You need to go, Mother. I'm sure Pit would love to hear from you. He won't turn you away this time."
"And how would you know that?"
Kuro stopped at the entrance back inside to his room from the terrace, his left hand frozen against the castle wall. "I just know, okay? I have a lot of thinking to do. Leave."
"As you wish, then." Palutena nodded, watching her son vanish into a barrier of stone walls and dark voids.
His voice echoed out from the dark. "Oh, and Mother, I almost forgot. I can sense him in Smash. My returning has caused him to come out of hiding. I hope your ready to watch him die. He's been gone for too long." Kuro's voice echoed ghastly against the walls, causing Palutena to shudder, looking away, banishing the thought. She didn't need to think of the person her son mentioned, not now, not yet.
Her hair flapped in the wind, and the ghost of the greatest Smash kingdom of all time could, like Kuro, feel the sadness from everything around her. The queen gave a longing look around the terrace, back to the star lit sky. Out of everyone still in Smash, she was the only one who could get a rouse out of the very being who killed her, and with a credibility like that to your name, it was hard to resist.
She sighed heavily, willing herself to blend back into the shadows.
Only time would tell what would become of her children, and it was a mother's worst fear to realize in a way, she had no way of protecting them anymore.
Robin watched, partly with half amusement, half curiosity as Peach paced the floors of their shared bedroom, the blonde caught up in a ditzy, hands and hair flying everywhere as the diplomat began to babble, babble, and babble. The silverette hugged her sides tight. Skyworld, and especially the castle, didn't feel as cold as it did with Shulk stalking its halls. No more blonde hair coupled with dark, beady eyes, or a cruel smile. A king who could be happy, but now the darkness in itself was replaced with a certain amber eyed angel.
If Robin Pherone thought she didn't trust Shulk Roberts, then she really didn't trust Kuro Icarus. For the brief time she had been placed in the Skyworld army up until Palutena's death five years ago, the few instances in passing of her to the dark haired angel never sat well in her stomach. Like curdled milk that'd spoil over time and fester like a longing poison just hoping to get free and spill out onto cracked cobblestone streets. The events of the fight in Eagleland three days ago still had the warrior, in a world surrounded by fire and ice and water and more dumbfounded. To hear the sounds of its destruction from afar, to see it up close... a feeling of mystified terror that could never be replaced.
For the two days since Kuro's resurrection, the duo lay low and quiet, never going out of their room except for food and the required reports in the morning. Pit seemed to beside himself in happiness at having his brother back to do anything else that was worthwhile. So it came down to this. Peach Seraph, being the smart lady that she was, analyzed the entire situation leading up to the Roy and Pit duel, and the consequences after it. The diplomat of the Skyworld court had no idea even if the king of Lycia was still alive, and that'd most certainly be a call for war.
Peach flurried around the room, spinning everything around her in a blonde tornado. "Robin, we must do something!"
"And what exactly have you come up with?" the warrior asked, this time bemused at the state her best friend was currently in.
"Get to the bottom of exactly what's been going on. We were stuck in the middle of it all whether we wanted to or not, and I've got a feeling that it isn't going to go away! Roy and Pit, for Smash's sake, just nearly killed each other! You think Lycia and Ylisse will appreciate that? Roy will spin it one way, Pit another, and there isn't going to be some apology I can write that will make this all better."
She could go on and on about this for hours, if she really wanted to. Luckily, Robin came to the conclusion first. "You see war on the horizon."
Peach swallowed grimly, stopping in her tracks. All it took to cause the blonde to halt was have her thoughts vocalized by someone other than her. "Exactly. There have been several accords broken from this and- and it isn't going to go away. Roy and Pit tried murdering one another, that's an accord we broke. Trying to destroy an artifact in Eagleland, which was placed there for sanctuary is also an accord now that has been imposed on. I can imagine there are countless others..."
"You need to be calm about this."
"Is there a way to be? Don't you see what I'm going on about?" Peach cried. "Last time Skyworld went to war, we went to war on a misconception, a misunderstanding that not only got Kuro placed in that cube, but killed a countless number of soldiers. That was accidental. This time all three counties are going to have a legitimate reason for battle, and those stakes are numbers I can't even think about at this moment!"
Robin got off of her bed, grabbing Peach's hands in hers. She forced her best friend to look straight at her, and for a few moments a tide of calmness passed over the diplomat, Peach's rising and falling chest from heavy breathing coming to a slow still. "I hate seeing you get this flustered," the silverette whispered gently, applying pressure to the blonde's palms. "Now breathe and think through this logically in what exactly is going to happen."
Peach swallowed again, letting go. "Two kings of two expansive kingdoms duel in a section of land that if ever fought in is punishable. One king almost kills, or killed the other, leaving an entire country to satisfy in explanation. The ally rises up and attacks out of retaliation, and then there is full frontal bloodshed on all sides that is inescapable," she took a deep breath, almost loosing her composure, shaking slightly. "That is what I see happening. That is what will happen."
They broke off, Peach going back to thinking. Robin rubbed her chin, then remembered something important from the two days of in absentia. "You can be alleviated on one thing. Pit told me out of confidence that he did not kill Roy, nor did Shulk. Roy Kang is alive, but injured, and perhaps beyond upset and wants to destroy Skyworld," she made a face. "Cheery."
The blonde paced some more, running a hand through her hair, then something caused her to stop, her gaze snapping towards Robin. The other woman jumped. "Tell me if I'm crazy... but, wasn't Shulk trying to resurrect Kuro? Isn't that why he tortured Pit for as long as he did, to get him to submit to any order?"
Robin stood back up. "You're right! But, what would obtaining Kuro's allegiance to him do?"
"Unless..." Peach trailed off, then her eyes widened in horror as everything in realization came full force.
Once more, her friend, the silverette warrior, finished the thought, lining up with Peach, feverish and electrified. "It'd be because Kuro has the same feelings towards Lycia and Ylisse, to wipe them out. Gaining another powerful ally like Kuro to your cause without assimilating them makes it easier to grow forces. Having Kuro means Pit would be in a way forced to fight, too. The powers of ice, electricity, black magic, and an army versus the powers of fire and water... a match of strength where we'd overpower the winner... but, Shulk didn't get to achieve his goal. Kuro's alive... but nothing's happened."
Peach rubbed her forehead, and though she hated to use the same tagline, she did. "Unless Kuro..."
"Unless Kuro plans on bringing the end to Lycia and Ylisse himself." Robin finished, nodding grimly.
The two women looked down at the floor, lost in their thought. Then, with the power of a thousand chariots and footmen, Peach rocketed to her feet. "We need to get out of Skyworld, Robin. Kuro's going to lead them to war against Lycia and Ylisse, he's going to finish what he tried starting five years ago, and without that cube to help them, he's not going down without a fight."
"Then where do you suggest we go?" Robin asked, looking lost.
Peach's gaze solidified, turning the diplomat into a little bit colder persona of herself. "We go to Roy Kang."
There we are guys! Chapter #21: Palutena's Intervention, of Icarus Chronicle. This chapter is meant to represent three things. First, Kuro is feeling somewhat regretful for his actions towards Palutena but has hardened even more so in terms of what is now entitled to him. Secondly, our female heroes are jumping shape, and it looks like the elemental commanders Roy and Lucina have gained two new allies. Thirdly, who is this mysterious person that Kuro is referring to? Think long and hard about all the chapters and hints towards this last main character, who shall be making their appearance next chapter! We're shifting into the last phase of the story, starting with the next chapter. A lot is planned, so keep your eyes peeled. The update should be coming much closer than this one, maybe to the end of the week. We've got a lot going on that I am super excited for. Time to get some answers answered, huh? Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you thought. We're so close to a hundred reviews, and I'd love if we could get there and have this be my first non Lucas x Ness story in Smash to breach that count, as I am already stoked at 81, which I never expected to reach with this far-out fantasy. See you all next time with Chapter #22: Lord of the Earth. Have an amazing day! Love you all! Bye!
~ Paradigm