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"The last time I heard the word 'miracle,' I had to kill my father in order to save the world, so no, I DON'T believe in miracles."

"Go, Kirby, go!"

Everyone else save Ridley was cheering the pink puffball, as he was currently challenging King Dedede in a Gourmet Race, with the condition that if he won, Dedede would be released from his possession. Inhaling one last plate of pasta, Kirby crossed the finish line before Dedede did, and with twenty items of food eaten to Dedede's seventeen. Dedede, huffing and puffing, crossed the finish line before collapsing in a heap. The Spirit possessing Dedede conceded defeat, and exited its vessel, leaving a very exhausted monarch on the floor.

Nudging the penguin, Kirby jumped back in surprise as he leaped up, and Dedede exclaimed, "I'm awake!" Looking around, saw a massive group of Smashers spectating what appeared to be the Gourmet racecourse, and he waved, yelling, "So good to see y'all again! I thought we were good as dead when everyone got vaporized!"

Everyone else waved at Dedede, Luigi in particular was especially happy to see him again, given his, Ness', and Dedede's exploits in Subspace. Before anyone could start celebrating, however, the Halberd passed over the area, dispersing a large amount of Shadow Bugs. Slowly, they began to take the form of Primids and many other enemies that were familiar to the Smashers.

Ridley screeched, before grabbing what looked like a Kracko and ripping it apart with his claws, and the fight was on.

On the deck, Cloud absently grabbed a random Spirit Orb that happened to float by, which sucked in him along with Yoshi, who had just taken out a crate of fruit.

Landing in a body of water, Yoshi got up first, and said, "Wait, this wasn't on the registered stage list for the tournament..."

Cloud got up next, and was immediately plagued by bad memories. He was back right in the place he swore he would never return to: the City of the Ancients (or the Cetra, whatever they were called). Walking up to the place where that had happened, Cloud absently stared at the flowers he had left in memory of Aerith before walking down to where Yoshi was calling for him.

Sighing, Cloud asked, "What is it now?" Yoshi pointed to the pool of water where he had laid Aerith to rest, and Cloud could've sworn he had gone crazy. Zelda was standing in the pool, but she resembled Aerith a great deal, with the brown hair, red jacket, and pink dress. In shock, Cloud breathed, "No way..." and ran over to where Zelda was. Extending a hand, he pulled her out of the water.

"Whew! Thanks for that, it felt like I woke up from a REALLY long sleep-" Looking at her savior, Zelda/Aerith asked, "Cloud?"

Tears of joy sprung to Cloud's eyes, and he grabbed her in a crushing embrace, choking out apologies for not saving her when he had the chance. Aerith patted him on the back in a comforting fashion, saying, "I don't blame you for any of that."

"You... don't?"

Giggling, Aerith responded, "Of course not! I was the one that was stupid enough to come here alone in the first place. You even tried to stop me from going solo, for crying out loud!"

Walking over, Yoshi said, "Um, this reunion has been very sweet, but I think that we have a party crasher on our hands..." Jerking a thumb behind him, the dinosaur pointed to a man with silver hair holding a massive sword.

Cloud's eyes narrowed in fury, and in a low, monotonous tone, he told Yoshi, "Stay behind and guard Aerith."

"You sure? That sword's pretty big-"

"This is personal."

The iciness in Cloud's voice told Yoshi that he was serious, and he instructed Zelda/Aerith to hop on before running away with her in tow.

Unfurling his black wing, Sephiroth said, "It's good to see you again, Cl-"

Cloud had already gotten Omnislash fully charged in the time that Sephiroth had begun his monologue, and rushed in before rapidly slashing at him and bringing the Buster Sword down on his head for the final hit. Somehow, Sephiroth, though heavily battered, was not dead, and he hissed, "You haven't seen the last of me..." before vanishing.

Yoshi ran back, asking, "Is the threat gone?"

"Yeah." To himself, he muttered, "For now, at least."

Aerith/Zelda hopped off of the dinosaur, and said to Cloud, "My guess is that you've got to save the world again, right?"

"How did you know?"

"Sephiroth showing up in here was all I needed to piece it together." Laughing, she planted a kiss on Cloud's cheek before glowing with a bright light. When the light faded, where Zelda/Aerith once stood, a Spirit Orb with Aerith's likeness inside it was floating in Cloud's hands. With Aerith's visage smiling at him, Cloud, having received absolution for the incident in the City of the Ancients, was warped back to the ship, with Yoshi in tow.

Back on the Lemurian ship, Cloud asked Snake for the Spirit Pouch, and the mercenary passed it to Cloud, who put Aerith's Spirit Orb into the bag. Smiling wistfully, Cloud thought, "What I wouldn't give to let you have a second chance..."

"There it is! The heart of Pac-Maze!"

Captain Falcon skidded to a stop, and looked at the pulsating red, blue, pink, and orange core in the center, before saying, "Well, what's it supposed to do?!"

Pac-Man responded with, "It's what powers Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde!"

Villager asked, "And how's that important?"

"I have a hunch: that robot is being powered by something, and it's got red, orange, blue, and pink sides. Red's got a gunblade, Blinky's the most powerful and the most aggressive ghost. Orange has shields, Clyde just likes to do his own thing. Blue and pink, well... Inky does well increasing pressure up close, while Pinky is great at forcing movement traps. So we just need to destroy the core, and the robot will shut down."

A bullet of dark energy narrowly grazed Little Mac, and he yelled, "Guys? The robot's right behind us!"

"Wait, what?"

Pac-Man, unfazed, yelled, "Hit that thing with the hardest attacks you've got!"

Duon began rapidly swiveling between its red, pink, and blue sides in an attempt to ward off any possible attacks, so when Little Mac used his K.O. Uppercut on no target in particular, he actually managed to knock off one of the blades on Duon's blue side. Switching targets to Little Mac, the robot switched to the pink face and fired a bright pink laser, which Little Mac barely managed to dodge.

"Falcon... PUNCH!"

Through the use of his signature move, Captain Falcon destroyed the orange facet of the core, and when Duon swiveled to its orange side, it darkened, and Mac punched through it with ease. Taking some breaths to calm himself, the Bruiser from the Bronx leaped into the robot in an attempt to destroy it from the inside.

Captain Falcon had shattered the pink part of the core, and Duon's pink side stopped functioning, now hanging onto the robot like dead weight. Meggy and Evan began inking the terrain in order to make the robot slip, and Ryu was ripping off whatever he could find in an attempt to stop Duon. Diddy overloaded one of his Popguns, and dropped it next to the core, motioning for everyone else to stay clear. As they dove for cover, the popgun exploded, and the robot twitched and spasmed as its blue core was destroyed, leaving its red side as the only functioning quadrant.

Inside Duon, Mac was punching his way through the numerous circuit boards, and found one of its servos completely unguarded, a complete contrast to the near impenetrable metal squares on the outside that protected them. Behind him, he heard the Swordfighter yell, "Hah! Take that, you technological fiend!"

Shattering the motor with one punch, Mac jumped out of the robot just as the Mii plunged his sword into the robot's main CPU, causing it to shut down. Walking back to the others, he said, "That was pretty easy, was it not?"

Pac-Man responded with, "Yeah, I guess it was," before punching the orb off its pedestal, causing it to shatter. The red quadrant disappeared, and much to the dot muncher's surprise, the four ghosts appeared all around the Smashers.

Blinky called out, "Now THAT was wicked! Also, thanks for the freedom, Pac-Dude!"

Inky said, "Now that we've been freed, you guys had best get out of here."

Confused, Pac-Man asked, "Wait, why?"

Pinky chimed in with, "Oh, we didn't tell you?"

Clyde explained, "See, this maze's existence is bound to us. If we're set free, then the maze no longer exists. You do know what I'm telling you, right?"

"That we should be getting the heck out of here?"

All four ghosts yelled, "Good luck, Pac-Man!" before disappearing.

Pulling the Blue Falcon out of his pocket, Villager dumped it onto the neon floor and said, "Well, here's our escape vehicle. I think we might be able to just barely squeeze in..."

"Nope, not today, kid." Calling for the Falcon Flyer, the bounty hunter's ship appeared above them, and Villager reluctantly re-Pocketed the Blue Falcon as he and the others boarded the ship.

Isaac had finally managed to reach a river that led inland, and he smirked to himself, saying, "It's time." Casting Hover, the Wings of Anemos on the sides of the ship unfurled, and the ship took to the skies.

Later, Wario, using a pair of binoculars, yelled out, "We got a ship incoming!"

Everyone else on the deck except for Pikachu echoed, "Ship?!"

As he pointed out into the distance, everyone else saw that the treasure hunter was correct. A bird-like ship was flying in the distance, and Snake called to Isaac, "Set a course for that ship!"

Isaac nodded, and ran back belowdecks to adjust the ship's course.

Grabbing a Primid by its head, Ridley threw it at a clone of the Fake Kraid before stomping on what appeared to be some sort of demon lady. Behind him, Joker called, "Thanks for the assist!" before shooting the Succubus one more time. Rolling his eyes, the former Space Pirate commander impaled a Mr. I on the tip of his tail before slamming the oversized eyeball onto a Wiggler that Luigi was fighting, causing it to split apart. Recoiling in disgust, the younger Mario brother found himself surrounded by some gravestones with eyeballs on them. Before he could panic, though, Peach broke one using her frying pan, while King Dedede crushed another one with a swing of his Jet Hammer. Pulling out the Poltergust G-00, Luigi shot a plunger at one of them, latching on to it, before hurling it into the abyss below.

Bowser pushed Luigi out of the way, calling back, "Sorry, Green 'Stache!" before sprinting into a shadowy clone of Midbus, who he began to do battle with. Samus, having fished out her still-operational arm cannon out of the bear's backpack (ignoring the bird's indignant squawks), fired a barrage of Super Missiles at a horde of Metal Primids, while up above, Mega Charizard X, with Squirtle and Ivysaur riding on his back, was providing support by doing bombing runs with Squirtle's Water Pulse and Aura Sphere attacks, while Ivysaur rained down botanical destruction with her Seed Bomb. Charizard simply blasted everything below him with Flamethrower, while using Dynamic Punch on the occasional Shadow Pokémon that got in his way.

Greninja was warping in and out of various enemy formations, hitting them with the most powerful attacks he knew, like Gunk Shot and Hydro Pump, before slamming a mat down at the treads of an Armank and flipping it into the air, before repeatedly using Night Slash on it, cracking open its armored shell and exposing the pilot. With a final blow, the shell split in half, before exploding behind Greninja.

The Piranha Plant found itself surrounded by some Leafans, but did not appear to be intimidated, and it spit several globs of poison at the enemies before lighting them on fire. With a satisfied smirk on its face, the plant waddled away from the carnage to join its leader in fighting the Midbus clone.

"Wait... is that the Falcon Flyer?"

As soon as the words left Snake's mouth, Pikachu perked up, before strapping some balloons to himself. Jumping off the ship, he drifted towards the Falcon Flyer, with the Lemurian ship following close behind.

Inside the Falcon Flyer, Diddy felt something thump on the roof, and got out of his seat to investigate. Opening the hatch on the roof, he was surprised to see Pikachu standing on there. He then held up one of his signs, which read, "What are you doing here?" Pikachu gestured behind him, and Diddy's eyes popped out of his skull.

Behind Pikachu was a large wooden ship that resembled K. Rool's Gangplank Galleon from years past, and Snake and Isaac stood at the bow, yelling, "Hey, get everyone else that's with you on here!"

Later, once everyone else was on the Lemurian ship, Captain Falcon sent away his Falcon Flyer and asked, "So... what do we do now?"

Snake's grim response was, "We fight for the freedom of the others."

Dr. Mario kicked a Sniper Joe in its midsection before overloading it with bursts of electricity from his palms. Dusting his hands off, he punched a Shadow Beehoss in the honeycombs before his phone went off. Fishing in his pockets, he pulled the device out and answered, "Hello?"

On the other end, Cloud said, "Oh, hey Doc, we just found another group of Smashers."

"You did?" After grabbing the Beehoss with one hand and chucking it off the edge, he continued, "Show me by video."

Cloud did so, and Dr. Mario saw Diddy Kong, the Mii Swordfighter, Captain Falcon, Meggy, Evan, Villager, Little Mac, Pac-Man, and Ryu.

"That's good, now if you'll excuse me, I have a fight to get back to- HOLY RAVIOLI!"

Dr. Mario hung up just as a Shadow Tyranitar landed in front of him, whipping up a blinding sandstorm. Shielding his eyes with his Super Sheet, Stefano attempted to hit the Tyranitar with a Super Jump Punch, but missed due to the Tyranitar sidestepping the attack. His fists crackling with electricity, Dr. Mario charged the Tyranitar, who was charging a Hyper Beam...

"Geno?"

"No, it's clearly Mallow- OF COURSE IT'S GENO!"

Hefting up the Sol Blade, Matthew yelled, "Megiddo!" and the massive fireball was sent hurtling towards the wooden puppet. Rolling out of the way, Geno fired an explosive mortar shell, and Mario and Matthew scattered as the shell exploded. Pulling out the Lazy Shell, Mario punted it at Geno, while Matthew attempted to bind him in place with Mad Growth. While the puppet broke free of the vines, the shell hit its mark and sent him sprawling. Mario charged at the puppet, who froze due to his lack of close-range options, but instead of tackling him, Mario swiped the cap off of Geno's head and threw Cappy at him, successfully Capturing the puppet.

Mario, inside the body, was immediately met by fierce resistance from the lesser Star Spirit that had possessed the body beforehand, and inside, Geno bellowed, "Get out of my body!"

Mario said back, "Not a chance, old friend!"

"...Friend?"

"I mean, that's-a what we are, right?"

"What kind of FRIEND leaves someone hanging for twelve long years, huh? You left me behind and never looked back!"

"I TRIED TO-A COME BACK, OKAY? I never stopped trying for-a those twelve years!" Mario made Geno punch himself in the head one last time, which simultaneously knocked out the puppet and forced Mario out of the body. Matthew was embroiled in his own battle with Sonic, who had suddenly appeared while Mario was busy battling with Geno in the latter's mind.

"Ha ha! Looks like you're too slow, blond- oof!"

Matthew had nailed the blue speedster with a mighty smack from the Sol Blade, and surrounded by a Psynergetic glow, he used Pound to flatten the hedgehog, who ran out of the shadow that the Psynergetic construct cast on him. With a scowl fixed on his face, Matthew pulled out the Masamune and unleashed Rising Dragon, and two dragon-shaped streams of water came out of the blade before chasing after Sonic. Matthew then cast Froth Spiral, trapping Sonic in a construct of water, allowing the dragons unleashed by the Masamune to wail on the hedgehog.

Mario stood back up, before running over to Geno's body. After a bit, the puppet stirred, and for a scary moment, his eyes did not appear to change. However, he dusted himself off before saying, "Good to be back, Mario." When Mario didn't respond, he asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Geno... I'm-a sorry for not trying hard enough in those twelve years." The guilt had finally gotten to Mario, and he passed his phone to Geno, telling him to dial his cousin's number.

Confused, Geno obliged, and dialed Dr. Mario's number.

Stefano, having thrown the last of the enemies into the path of Mega Man's Metal Blades, felt his phone vibrate, and pulled it out. Seeing the contact ID, he eagerly accepted the call, before answering, "Ah, cugino! Any good news?"

"Oh... hi, Doc."

"Geno?!"

"Mario told me to dial your number... and now he's motioning for you to pass the phone to Princess Toadstool."

With a small laugh, the good doctor responded, "Oh, we call her Peach nowadays, but alright." Walking back over to the others, he tossed his phone to the princess, saying, "It's Geno," before walking over to the kid who called himself "Joker."

Peach answered with a chipper, "Hello?"

"Good to hear your voice again, Princess Toadstool."

"Oh, Geno! How are you?"

"Princess… I hate to be a downer, but Mario's been acting weird for the last five minutes, do you know why?"

"Well… oh, right, Mario never told it to anyone but Luigi and I… see, he prefers to keep his problems to himself, and I never understood why that was when he literally has a cousin who's a doctor and a psychiatrist…"

"What is this problem, pray tell?"

"Mario wanted to go back and get you as soon as the relocation process was finished, but he kept getting sidetracked by all sorts of things because the kingdom had pigeonholed him into the role of the hero..."

"Really?"

"Well... he ended up going to the wrong Star Hill at one point, you know, the one with the Star Shrine?"

"Yeah, I've heard of that place."

"Well, Luigi told me that he spent two whole days searching the hill in an effort to look for you, and he barely slept. In fact, just last month, he built a small house for you to live in just in case he found you by some stroke of sheer luck."

"...Why didn't he just come to Star Hill?"

"The Mushroom Valley is currently in a state of decay that's allowed for many monsters to thrive, and... well, Mario and Luigi are the only people in the Mushroom Kingdom with something resembling competence as bodyguards, so we couldn't risk them getting injured, especially if there's someone like Culex still lurking around there. Mario protested this, you know. It only took Toadsworth threatening his cousin with exile to make him stop. Maybe you should just tell him that you forgive him, and that'll most likely patch things up."

Bowser had overheard most of the conversation, and he stormed over, taking the phone out of the princess' hands before snarling, "Listen, Pinocchitoad, you better apologize to Mario and get him back into the game! I refuse to defeat a shell of a man!"

Peach said, "That's enough of that," before grabbing the phone back and finishing with, "Good luck, Geno!"

Hanging up, Peach cast Group Hug, healing most of the group, allowing them to rest as they planned their next move...

Geno tossed the phone back to Mario and said, "I don't get why you're beating yourself up about this, Mario."

Mario looked at him and asked, "What do you-a mean?"

"I mean, you tried to come back, that's all I wanted to know. The only way I WOULD'VE been mad is if you completely forgot about me, so you're forgiven."

Mario's disposition brightened at that, and he told the puppet, "When this is-a all done, you're staying with us at-a the Mushroom Kingdom. No more of the-a whole communications barrier."

"That does sound nice. Speaking of communications, have you spoken to Mallow recently?"

"Not that-a I remember, no..."

Matthew interrupted the two with, "So, I found this waterlogged hedgehog. That important?"

After laying Sonic on the ground, Mario, Matthew, and Geno waited for the teenage speedster to reawaken. When he did, his eyes changed back to their normal green before he yelled out in a panic, "I can't swi-" Looking around he calmly responded, "Oh, it's you guys."

As Mario helped him up, Sonic asked, "So, we got another mess to clean up?"

Mario nodded, before motioning to a nearby Launch Star and saying, "That's-a our escape. Let's-a fly!"

Fox absently looked at the little clock on the dashboard of the ship. Falco was asleep at the controls, Donkey Kong had also began snoozing, and Popo and Nana were still sound asleep, holding onto each other for support. Before Fox himself could fall asleep, he felt something thump in the cargo hold where everyone else was, and he looked back to see Mario, Matthew, Sonic, and that small caped puppet having arrived on the Great Fox. Mario then gave a thumbs-up before flying off into space again.

Just as Fox was about to fall asleep, Mario flew in front of the cockpit window, saying, "Hey, you see that-a big comet over there?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's the-a Comet Observatory! We're gonna find Rosalina there!"

Taking off towards the comet, whooping in a joyous fashion, Fox closed the hatch on the back of the ship before punching the thruster activation button, and the engines roared to life before the Great Fox took off in pursuit of Mario.

"Wait... do these clouds taste like cotton candy?"

Yoshi, having heard Snake's observation, eagerly ran up to the front asking, "Cotton candy?! WHERE?!"

Looking down, he let out a disappointed sigh and said, "Oh, it's probably an artificial version of Magicant or something."

In confusion, the mercenary parroted, "Magicant?"

Pac-Man chimed in with, "It's what's inside Ness' mind!" Shaking his head, he continued, "That kid's seen some stuff, I tell you what..."

Link interjected with, "Well, considering that his next-door neighbor turned into a genocidal maniac who created an empire in the future, as well as the fact that he's also seen and beaten the embodiment of pure evil, I'm inclined to agree."

As murmurs of agreement rang through the crowd on deck, a yell of "PK FLASH!" caught them off guard, and everyone scrambled to avoid getting hit with a lethal dose of psychokinetic light. As soon as everyone uncovered their eyes, they found Ness, his eyes blank, staring right back at them.

I hope you guys enjoyed the more character-driven chapter that this turned out to be. Remember, feedback is always welcome, so don't be afraid to leave a review!

To my guest reviewer, this AU is fleshed out. Like, really fleshed out. For absentee Assists, I brought back Saki, Magnus, and Elec Man, because their absence was baffling (though if I'm being honest here, I would've included Saki as a fifth bonus Smasher for this AU had I thought of it at the time).

Isaac, Matthew, Geno, and Banjo were included because I had played their respective games throughout Smash Ultimate's hype cycle, so I decided to give them a shot in this story.