Chapter 24: Rising to a Boil

It had been another slow day of travel. Aria's leg was causing enormous misery between the two of them. Dark Pit's muscles had gone sore from carrying her for two days straight. She may not have been fat, but she wasn't light as a feather, either. Even Dark Pit, with his angel muscles, couldn't deal with 130 to 150 pounds of weight for that long.

Dark Pit slumped down after he set Aria on the ground. He was tired. He pulled out his pack and rummaged through it. He pulled out the sword and knives he had confiscated for Aria. He couldn't believe that he'd forgotten to give them to her. Oh well, he could do it now.

"Aria," he said.

"Yes," she said, looking at him.

"I forgot to give you some things." He took the knives and sword and gave them to Aria.

She held them up and examined them. The knives were simple, but very well made. The sword had a broadsword-like hilt, but the blade was thin and serrated near the hilt. The metal was very high quality. Dark Pit could actually compare it to some of the metals used in angelic weapons. However, there was no angelic power in this sword.

"I actually remember you mentioning that you had at least one knife," she stated.

"Yeah, but things happened," he replied. "Training you on the Palutena Bow took up all of my attention. And then there was the flashback."

"I remember that, too."

"Anyway," Dark Pit began, "you will need to train with the sword when your leg heals."

"Ugh, don't remind me about that. It still hurts like heck, you know."

"Yeah."

There was an awkward silence. Dark Pit didn't know what to say. Aria didn't either. They had already eaten, so there wasn't anything to detract from the silence. The awkward increased, and increased, and increased. Right about when it got unbearable, Aria broke the silence.

"So what do you think of me?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Dark Pit countered, perplexed.

"Do you like me?"

"Yeah. You're a good person to be around. You are forgiving and trustworthy. I can't think of any reason why we wouldn't be friends."

"But do you like me?"

Dark Pit was caught off guard. He wasn't expecting that question at all. Did he like her like that? His feelings were a little muddled by recent events. However, there was definitely something there. He just couldn't tell whether it was like or strong friendship.

Finally, he said, "Um, why? Do you?"

Aria was silent for a moment. And then she nodded yes. Now Dark Pit was in trouble. He'd have to sort out his feelings really quick in order to avoid hurting her. He thought about some of the things they'd done together. Being alone had helped it, and training with her, and sharing his personal issues. Ultimately, he trusted her more than he'd trust a friend.

"Yes," he said. "I like you. It's still muddled for me, but I definitely have feelings for you. This is the first time since her."

Aria's face brightened considerably. And then she remembered her leg. Yeah, that needed fixing. Even though there wasn't much they could do, Dark Pit knew that sleeping would help.

"Let's go to bed," he said. "Sleep will help us."

Aria nodded the affirmative and they both drifted off.

Dark Pit woke up feeling a true shock. Pit was near. He could not deny this. His twin sense told him it was true. His chance for revenge was close at hand. Dark Pit rose without even questioning what he was getting revenge for. All he felt was the desire to kill the angel once and for all. And he knew how to do it. He looked east and noticed that he'd missed the sunrise.

He got Aria up.

"What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"He's here," was the icy reply.

"Who?" she asked, sleepiness replaced with concern.

"Why do you hate him so badly?"

"We've been over this. It has to do with Lilia."

Aria went silent. There was now an ominous silence. Dark Pit felt that his exhaustion was gone. All he felt was rage. Pure, unadulterated rage. Hatred had a strong presence as well. Dark Pit felt his fire rise. It burned with an extreme passion. He brought out his Silver Sword and let the blades loose. He didn't know when he'd meet Pit, but once he did, he'd be prepared.

He wordlessly picked up Aria, still carefully, despite his rage, and began walking west. Aria gave Dark Pit some good news when she told him that the key that they were after was near. According to her, it was only a few hours away. He wanted to get that key before he moved to kill Pit.

He walked on at full speed, stepping so as not to jostle Aria's leg. That was the last thing he wanted to do. She didn't complain, either. Obviously, she was doing better. Plus, Dark Pit was good at being speedy but careful.

They reached a place near a valley opening. There was a nice progression from forest to grass to beach to ocean. It all happened in about 200 feet. Dark Pit could sense Pit's presence getting closer all of a sudden. Apparently, he'd just started moving. All the better, it gave Dark Pit some time to prepare.

Meanwhile, he used Aria's sight to guide him to where the key was. She almost took him into the ocean while looking for that key. However, just before he entered the area affected by the tide, Aria told him that the key was right under their feet.

He gently set her down about ten feet away and then bared his blade at the spot she'd mentioned. He summoned the control of wind that he'd acquired so long before. He forced into a vortex that lifted the sand clear off the spot Aria had told him to dig. He then blew the kicked up dirt east, away from Aria. When he was done, he looked into the hole. There was a black chest, decorated with underworld symbols.

He jumped into the hole and lifted the chest out. The lock was a picture of the underworld eye symbol with the keyhole in the iris. He didn't have the key, but that wouldn't matter much. He jammed the blade into the crack between the chest's body and its lid. He then lit his blade on fire and melted his way through the lock. He then opened the chest up.

What he saw was an underworld key marked III. Now he had three of them in his possession. V, II, and III were all in his hands, meaning that the only two left were I and IV. He could feel the end of a phase of the mission in sight. Now all he had to do was put an end to Pit.