Hey, hey, guess who? It's me, PozzyP and I'm back and ready to go. No points for guessing that. I said I'd be back late June and it's only mid June so don't tell me I'm not generous. So continues the story.

Robin POV

Remember what Shulk said. No one hates me and is fine with who I like. They don't think you're a failure for having a similar fighting style as the other Robin. They don't want you kicked out because of that. Positive thoughts…positive thoughts.

I opened my eyes. I was definitely dreaming again. Well at least I'm sure of that from the beginning this time. No more nasty surprises. I was floating. I looked down but couldn't see my body or my hand in front of my face. There would've been a time where I'd have panicked at this loss but not this time. Breathe deeply. Positive thoughts. As long as you're in control they can't hurt you.

I sucked in another deep breath, holding for a second, before letting it out slowly. This was actually vaguely pleasant. Just gently floating in a colorless void with nothing to worry about. Calm thoughts. Fear is the enemy. No nightmares today.

"Who said anything about nightmares?" The empty expanse of space flickered.

"Leave me alone." I said, in a level a voice as I could manage. "Your tricks aren't going to work on me tonight."

"Relax, Spellcaster, I just want to show you something." The void became awash with color, like a painting exposed to water. "There are no tricks here. What I'm showing you is straight from your own mind. No alterations." The colors coalesced into a coherent scene below me, which I continued to float above. I narrowed my eyes, squinting. Is that…no. The scene showed a room, untidy to say the least. A lone figure was hurrying back and forth about the room, haphazardly scanning books and manuscripts, knocking things over but not picking them up. Occasionally spells were cast but their effect was never one of success.

"You know what this is, Robin. You remember." I did. This was the house I'd bought after Grima had been vanquished. The figure running back and forth between books was me.

"Why…why are you showing me myself?" I asked aloud.

"Don't play games with me, Robin," the voice threatened, darkly. "You know full well what you're witnessing. Failure."

"You don't know…"

"Oh but I do. The terrible truth. The real reason you can't ever be with your beloved Lucina." I had no words to say to that. The voice had picked at my deepest wound. I could see the figure I was watching becoming more and more agitated. It tried rereading several of the passages from the books and casting the spells again but success was always just out of reach.

"I…I tried so hard," I muttered, not caring if the voice could hear me or not. It was more for my benefit anyway as if to justify my past actions. "No matter how much I studied or how many tomes I learned it was never enough. I could never cast it right."

"And the door to her time remained firmly shut, hm? Just as it always will."

"You're just trying to make me fall into depression again. It's not going to work." Though my words were half-hearted the meaning was still clear. At least I hoped it was.

"I'm actually just showing you how pointless it all is. Trying to overcome my power is pointless. Look," the voice commanded, pulling my ethereal form closer to the scene. I could see the past version of myself had given up and had curled into a ball on my bed, unmoving. "If you can't even master simple magic like that then how can you possibly resist me?

"Simple? It takes even Naga great exertion to pull off a spell like that. Time travel isn't easy," I argued quietly. "I asked her for help but she always insisted I only would be able to if I truly wanted it."

"Do you want it?

"Yes."

"Well clearly not enough. Or maybe you're just weak," the voice pondered. "Either way you've been lying to Shulk and you other 'friends' about your situation. Ylissean law is the least of your concerns it seems. It's almost sad to think about. As much as it sickens me to think about it they genuinely want to help you. But you won't let them know the truth and give them false hope that they're helping you 'fit in' and some vague notions of acceptance. Pitiful."

"…..Are you done?"

"Tch, what kind of response is that? I show you your greatest failure as a human and you try to shrug it off. I'm starting to think you enjoy the nightmares. They're more fun for me to concoct at any rate."

"Actually I preferred if you'd just leave." I didn't feel like fighting. No threats or action plan…just a choice. All of this dream infiltration was really doing my head in. "Not just this dream but everyone's. Just leave. We've got no quarrel with you so just leave and no one gets hurt."

"People are going to get hurt and they're going to continue to get hurt until I get what I want and deserve," The voice said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I even get to see some of the world's greatest hero's tremble before me. I must admit I get a little kick out of that. Being on top's a thing I could get used to."

"What does that even mean?"

"You're a tactician. Go figure." The voice paused for a moment. "Well as pleasant as this is I've got to spread my influence to the rest of the Smashers. In time I'll break them completely. Even you. Then we'll…I'll leave you guess. No sense in giving away our goals now is there?"

And with that the scene below me faded, leaving the past version of myself to cry silently into my pillow and present me once again suspended in nothingness. I could feel myself drifting towards the waking world so I didn't try to fight it. The dream caster had let me go once again and I didn't want to be around in case they changed their mind.

My eyes fluttered open. The first rays of light were just beginning to stream through the curtains. The clock said it was coming up to 5:30. I guess dream time and real time run at different speeds.

That…that voice. I know I've heard it before. Last time she said she was 'collecting data' on me. Is that why she let me go? To study me? It would certainly seem to be an experiment of some sort since she didn't try to straight up scare me this time…instead toying with me in crueller ways. Things that were out of my control.

I remembered the scene she'd shown me. My failures in learning the most dangerous of all magic with the goal of…. I couldn't bring myself to say it. No matter what had been said the voice was right. While it was true Ylissean law didn't recognise the union of two people of the same gender there was a simpler, much more disheartening reason Lucina and I were never meant to be.

And I lied. I lied to everyone who knew at the mansion to cover myself, to make them think there was a chance I could be happy.

I looked across the room. Shulk was still asleep, his chest rising and falling in gentle rhythms under the blanket. Not wanting to disturb him I readjusted my position and closed my eyes again. There were no dreams this time.

"Robin…Robin wake up." I turned myself away from Shulk's voice. "Robin it's time for breakfast.

"No. I want to stay in bed."

"Do you want everything to be gone by the time we get there? You gonna go a whole day without eating?"

"No but the bed's very comfortable right now." I opened my eyes a sliver. The sun was streaming in much more harshly than before. Shulk was already dressed and by my bedside, trying pull the duvet away from me.

"If you don't get up then we'll both miss breakfast because I'm not going to leave you here."

"I'd be touched if you weren't being such a pest right now. Fine I'll get up." Pushing him away I got up and stumbled into the bathroom, still pretty much asleep. I got changed, taking a long look at myself in the mirror.

"Robin we're going to be late!"

"Yeah I'm coming," I said, not really paying attention. The person looking back at me in the mirror looked terrible. Her eyes were red and puffy like she'd been crying silently into her pillow that night and the bags underneath them were beginning to reform.

Jeez. Do I really look like that? I hastily exited the room, dumping my pajamas on the bed. Shulk wasn't impressed.

"Robin you look like crap."

"Good morning to you too."

"I mean it. Did you have another nightmare?" I attempted to answer but he hurried me out of the dorm and into the hall. "You can tell me as we walk. I don't want to miss pancakes." Fair reasoning I suppose. So as we walked I told him of my latest encounter with the figure.

I deliberately left the details vague so as not to draw attention to any…failings on my part. I did emphasise that her technique had changed since the last time and had tried to break me slowly, rather than brute force her way into my greatest fears.

"Maybe this has something to do with you trying to resist her influence?" Shulk wondered aloud. "She's changing tactics which isn't good for us…"

"Because it shows they've thought this through," I finished. "This was all planned, not some spur of the moment deal."

"Last time she mentioned 'plan B'. Was this it?" I scratched the back of my bed head.

"I don't think so. Plan B sounds much bigger and only to be used if 'A' fails and since most of the Smashers are still in the grip of their own fears I don't think it's come to that yet." Shulk smiled.

"And you say we're not making progress. It's barely even 9 am and we're already drawing conclusions."

"But are they the right ones?"

"Let's hope." We entered the dining hall. "And stop being negative. It's not going to do you any favors." I wanted to tell him that it was his insistence on thinking positives that ensured I didn't give into depression the previous night but he'd already made his way over to the pancakes before sitting down next to Palutena and Lucario.

I made my way over, but not before mimicking his actions and grabbing myself some pancakes. And to think I wanted to stay in bed. Shocking.

"Hi there, Robin!" The goddess said, all too cheerily for my liking. "How's things?"

"Um…good. I guess." She frowned.

"You don't sound so sure. Another nightmare?"

"How did you…?"

"Shulk told me." Shulk was currently stuffing as many pancakes into his mouth as was physically possible (an image I desperately want to forget) so I took her word for it. "Plus mostly everyone who had one last time had one last night as well. It stands to reason you'd have one too."

"And let me guess that you didn't?"

"Alas I remain nightmare free which is more than can be said for Pit." She poked numbly at her toast. "This is the second day he's been blank. I couldn't even get him to get out of bed this morning. I'll take him some ice cream later."

Her cheery demeanour from not a moment ago gone, she held her head in her hands. Though I didn't trust her completely I could see she cared for Pit. I didn't think she would cause the nightmares if they would harm the closest thing she had to a son.

"You should take him to the Wii fit trainer's sessions," I offered. "They've helped other people, myself included. Maybe it'll do him some good?"

"At this stage I'll try anything. Thanks, Robin," she said, her unnaturally green eyes brimming with gratefulness.

"No problem. I turned to Lucario who was nose deep in bowl of cereal.

"Lucario, sorry to bother you but could you…"

"No." Palutena went wide eyed and Shulk nearly choked on his pancake.

"I'm sorry but…"

"No." He put down his cereal spoon and looked my straight in the eye. "I know what you're going to say and ask me to do but the answer is no. It isn't him."

"Isn't who?" Palutena asked, watching the scene unfold with great interest.

"Darkrai isn't behind this."

"How can you be so sure?" Shulk asked, wolfing down the last of his pancake. Lucario sighed, pushing away his plate.

"Do you honestly think you're the only ones who've been investigating this? Darkrai and I go way back. We're both from Sinnoh so it makes sense we've crossed paths before. When the nightmares started he was the first person I checked. It isn't him."

I was stunned. I never considered any of the unaffected Smashers had bothered to investigate the incidents themselves. Master hand should be including Lucario into his 'trusted circle' if what he said was true.

"And before you ask it isn't Nightmare either. Meta knight check yesterday. If you'll excuse me." The Pokémon stood up, taking his plate with him, and left the hall.

"Well there goes two of our best leads," I muttered. "But at least that narrows it down slightly."

"We still haven't found King Boo yet," Shulk argued. "And he's a shady character to say the least. It could well be him."

"Is King Boo even allowed in the mansion?" Palutena commented, deciding her breakfast could do without eating. "I mean he isn't an assist trophy and he's certainly not a Pokémon so what reason could Master hand have for letting him in?"

"To my knowledge Master Hand lets anyone in as long as they're relatively well known throughout our multiverse and promise not to disrupt the official matches. Ironic given our current position."

"Well said, Robin. Maybe we should go and find Master hand and ask?"

"Why wait?" I rolled up several of my uneaten pancakes and stuffed them into my coat pockets. "Let's find him right this second."

"…I really hope you didn't put any maple syrup on those. Your pockets are gonna be sticky as hell later."

"Details. Two of our best leads have just been busted by someone who isn't us and I'm not going to sit around like a dunce of a tactician for someone like Kirby to swoop in and do it themselves." I glanced around. Kirby was at a far table inhaling as much food as he could. Typical.

Maybe I was over reacting but I didn't like that someone had beaten us to two of our prime suspects and debunked them. It was odd but I almost felt some sort of duty as Master Hand's 'go to' person to not let anyone but us find out who was behind this. It's only natural that a tactician experiences some rivalry with others who beat them.

"You coming, Shulk?"

"Ugh. I don't see the rush all of a sudden but whatever makes you happy. See you, Palutena."

"Hm, what? Oh bye!"

"Take Pit to the Wii fit trainer's session today. It should help at least a bit."

"I will. Bye Robin!" She waved us off (slightly too forcefully if you ask me) and went back to her brooding position. I looked around the mess hall. Most of the Smasher's were still mere shells of their former selves but at least some of them were showing slight improvement.

Ike was muttering to himself which was a sure step up from saying nothing at all. Captain Falcon was having a go at eating toast soldiers but I could see his heart wasn't in it. It was still progress though. I was almost tempted to let the situation resolve itself and let the Smashers build up a resistance to the nightmares but I knew my morality wouldn't allow.

Besides I was still wary of 'Plan B' and what that entailed. I really, really didn't want to find out which was all the more reason to find Master Hand all the quicker. This didn't stop me, however, from stealing a glance backward across the hall as I reached the door. I could hear Shulk calling me from down the corridor but I ignored him.

I was watching Palutena who was in turn watching me from across the room. Her face was blank now but that didn't fool me. Maybe it was my eyes playing tricks but for the briefest second I could've sworn I saw her scowl at me. Of course it was all over by the time I'd begun to process what I'd seen but that didn't stop me feeling uneasy. I brushed it off. I'm sure it was nothing.

We walked in silence. After all there wasn't much to say; much of our questions could only be answered by none other than the force of creation himself, Master hand.

"Do you think all these corridors look the same?" Shulk, shrugged.

"Kind of. You'd think Master hand would at least paint the walls different colors so people would stop getting lost all the time."

"Hey that's what I was thinking! I guess great minds thi…" I stopped. The corridor we'd just rounded was different. Shulk caught on too and stopped to sniff the air. Absolutely putrid was the only thing that came to mind…and it was getting closer. "Oh no."

"What?" Shulk asked, turning to face me, covering his nose in the process.

"I spoke too soon. I like the corridors just the way they are. We really don't need that smell to be here. Or who it's coming from."

"It's pretty awful I must admit. Wait what do you mean 'who it's coming from'?" To answer his question, a disgruntled Wario rounded the opposite corner, barging between us.

"Hey watch where you chumps are going! I got business to attend to."

Oh gods he touched me! The smell touched me! I'm gonna stink for the rest of the day!

"Hey get back here!" Shulk said, not taking his hand away from his nose. "Did you have nightmares?" The Italian stopped, only scratch his nether regions.

"Eh? I already told youse I got better things to worry about than some crazy dreams." I heard him mutter 'weirdos' under his garlic tainted breath as he resumed his purposeful walk away from us.

"I thought we already knew he didn't have any?" I asked, once the smell had cleared as much as it was going to (which wasn't much).

"I just wanted to be sure. I've only heard things for some of the Smashers through word of mouth and I didn't get around to checking it out for myself." He took his hand away to suck in a lungful of air, only to be disgusted when the pungent odor hadn't fully cleared. "Let's keep moving, then talk."

"Good idea." We resumed our trek to the office of our director, glad to be free of the smell.

"Why is it whenever I say something, fate decides to take it literally?" I wondered to him.

"I thought you didn't believe in fate?"

"…You know what I mean. Figure of speech. …..I don't suppose you think Wario could be behind this? I mean he's a pretty mean spirited guy, right?"

"I don't think he'd go out of his way to mess us all up just because he's feeling mean. Not unless he got paid at the end. I think he'd just complain a lot."

"Fair enough." We arrived at the double doors to Master Hand's room, still as imposing as ever. I knocked but was surprised to see the door swung freely inward slightly. It was clear Master hand wasn't inside. Shulk made a move to go in but I stopped him. "Shouldn't we wait until we're called in?"

"I don't want to stand out in the hall like an idiot all day. Besides he won't mind. We're his 'trusted people' remember?" I did remember but I didn't really see that as a defence for what was basically breaking and entering (even if the door was already unlocked and open). Sighing, I followed the Homs boy in.

"Jeez does he ever tidy this place up?" It was even more crammed with papers than the last time I'd been in here, some piles dangerously close to toppling over onto the plush carpet below.

"Huh look at this one," Shulk picked the paper on top of the nearest pile off and began to read. "What kind of a list is this? Roy, King K. Rool, Shovel knight, Wonder Red, Rayman, Heavy and Medic, Dimentio, Isaac, Inklings, Krystal, Young Link, Captain Syrup, Wolf, Banjo and Kazooie, Shantae…" I snatched the paper away from him before he could read anymore.

"Shulk we can't just read his private stuff!" I glanced down at the paper in my hand. "Although, is that Ashley's name down here? And Shadow as well? Aren't they assist trophies?"

"Maybe it's a list of people applying to be fighters in the next tournament?"

"Correct?" I span around to see Master Hand had entered from another door. "Please explain why you are reading my 'private stuff' as Robin so eloquently put it.

"Um well…" I looked to Shulk for help but he just shook his head in panic. "It was on the top of the pile and was clearly in plain view for us to see. We're supposed to be gathering clues so we need to check everything out. Including your desk."

"…Either that's an odd truth or the most believable lie made up on the spot I've ever seen. It doesn't matter. Sit down." We did, casually placing the paper back on top of the nearest pile as if nothing had happened. "I take it you want to ask me something?" I let Shulk handle this one.

"We were just wondering about your policy on letting non Smashers into the mansion. Those who aren't fighters or assist trophies or Pokémon. One of our suspects falls into that category."

"Hm. As you probably know, anyone that's had prolonged history with any one of the Smashers is welcome into the mansion, whether they've been antagonistic or helpful in the past. As long as they don't interfere in official matches I see no reason to bar anyone from entering."

"Even people like King Boo?"

"I take it he's your suspect then?"

"Yes", I affirmed.

"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you but although King Boo is eligible to enter the mansion he's been under the control of Professor E. Gadd for quite some time now."

"E. Gadd…that rings a bell…"

"He's the person Luigi teams up with to fight various paranormal happenings throughout the Mushroom world. Their latest adventure lead to the capture of King Boo so his involvement in the situation we have here is likely nil."

"You're kidding," breathed Shulk. "I really thought it could be him. Now we've got no leads."

"Well I'm sure if you…" Master hand paused, as if seeing Shulk for the first time. Shulk have you brought a dark object into my presence? I can feel its power from here."

"You mean this?" Shulk brought out his corrupted Monado, laying it gingerly across the desk amongst all the papers. Master Hand came as close to doing a double take as he could.

"Your blade…I feel no connection between it and the ether but instead a dark force has wrenched control. How did this happen?" Shulk explained how during his vision the female figure had sent out a wave of energy towards us that knocked us out of the dream and back in our plane of existence. The Monado had been damaged in the process.

"Can you fix it?"

"Alas without knowing the exact nature of the corruption I cannot remove the enchantment. Trying to remove it by force could shatter the blade itself." Shulk looked alarmed but Master Hand assured him it wouldn't come to that. "I assure you it will heal in time. Until then you may use your mark 2."

"Well that saves me asking." He said, taking the sword back. "You can curb its power down to the level of the original, right?"

"That I can do. And now that our external teleporters are back online you can ask your friends on Bionis to send it over today."

"Wait the teleport was down?"

"The sheer mass of sending every assist trophy and pokéball to Gaur plains to save you overloaded the system. Megaman and ROB have only just been able to repair it. And this of course means I can now inform you that now the teleporter is fixed we can transport two of our returning fighters here."

"Returning fighters? You mean Lucas right? I remember Ness saying something about him coming back."

"Yes Lucas as well as Mewtwo. Lucario and he are rivals. They get on well enough, though."

"Huh. So when are they arriving?"

"Tomorrow after breakfast."

So did the competition just get stiffer?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so, Robin." He leaned in closer. "But think of it like this. You can use them to study the effects of the dreams first hand if it's any consolation." He went back behind his desk, the papers magically reforming into perfect piles. "You've got lots of work to do, Robin and Shulk. I suggest you begin for the day. And don't forget to keep training for the tournament. It begins in mere days I might add."

The competition! I'd nearly forgotten what with all of the happenings. It seemed so insignificant in comparison but it was still the reason we were all here in the first place. We bade goodbye to Master hand (the door closing behind us this time).

"Split up again?" Shulk asked. "I've got to get my other blade and it's not going to be particularly interesting to watch.

"Sure. I'll find out what I can. Report back in the dorm later?"

"Yep." I watched him leave before taking out one of the pancakes I'd stuffed in to my pocket from earlier. It was still decent, even if it now had the 'old book smell'. Much better than some smells I knew of.

A/N: Just to say sorry for the brief absence I've especially written an extra story that'll go up later today. It's a oneshot in the pokemon genre involving Magma admin Courtney meeting Cyrus (boss of team Galactic) but even if you're not a fan of that it touches on some interesting topics such as emotion, purpose, being etc. It's titled 'These emotions' I recommend it (cos I wrote it. Shameless self promotion)

Nateklh: Palutena seems to be a popular choice here. Can't imagine why? Viridi...eh. Could be for all we know.

Heman2000:I agree that Shulk with the Shorts is overused but I won't bash it. Comedic value and all that. Mr. Game and Watch is generally a suspicious guy. Don't look into that too much. Judge 9 is basically his only kill move as his smashes are too slow to be useful. Hey team fortress 2 cameo for the win (you caught it right?).

I want to write more here but word count and all that. I again recommend you getting your own account just so I can PM you the finer details about what you say, just so I don't clog up the section. Not to say I don't love your crazy enthusiasm here but I probably said before about focussing your energy. Focus, man. Take deep breathes. PS. how can you be blamed for using the Monado arts? That's Shulk's main strength (that and ridiculous range) PPS. I give Yoshizilla props for trying. That's about it. He's a...colorful guy.

Yugiohfangirl: I can't believe there are no Starwars/Xenoblade stories. Oh the injustice. You mention MLP...I'll let that slide just this once. I can accept it's better than the original (which isn't saying much) but it's still really...fill in the blank here with various words. You know the ones. I digress. Hey lots of people can have 'all seeing eyes', don't get too comfortable in your thinking.

Mahnati: Yes I enjoy writing Robin and Shulk's friendship together very much. After all the crap they go through they deserve some happiness.

Sarcasm: I thought Shulk's dad looked like Hulk Hogan as well. Strange.

Otomos the Crazy Peridot: Or can it? Maybe. You'll have to find out.

Blimey we got to over 100 reviews. Granted I tallyed them up and over 1/4 are from one single person (I'm looking at you, you crazy enthusiastic person). I can't thank all of you enough for the support I've got for this story. I know it isn't exactly 'it came from Lucina's head' but I did the best I could with this idea. If you'd stick around until the end that'd be cool. More than cool it'd be awesome.

Note: I just played "Shantae and the Pirate's curse' for the first time recently and it has quickly become one of my favourite games of all time. The characters, story and music...oh gods the music. Just search up Shantae and the pirate's curse boss theme (extended version) and 'We love burning town'. Some of the best pieces of music ever written.

I urge you to vote for her in the Smash bros fighter ballot as personal plea from me. There are very few more deserving than her (especially on the Indie side). I dare you to say Shovel knight is better. Shantae has had more games, more history with Nintendo, actually has a personality (Shovel knight is literally just a guy with a spade), great desigm (Shovel knight looks almost like one of Zelda's phantom knights), Has a great supporting cast and interactions to make the world feel more real (Shovel knight is made up of SHovel knight, generic princess and evil guy for the most part. Thats it. Boring.) Also much more unique moveset: Dancing and transformation and pirate equipement usage VS spade and ocasional magic.

I've played it and know the shovel can do other things but when it comes down to it, it's just another long range sword design and gods know we've got enough of them. Ok I'm done. But vote Shantae. Do it for your pal PozzyP!

To understand what Robin was seeing at the beginning of this chapter you'll need really basic Fire emblem awakening knowledge but honestly it isn't too hard to guess what happened. Just think it through.

Anyway so ends the 21st chapter and onwards to the 22nd. I'll be waiting for you there. Bye from PozzyP!