The silver-haired queen went to her usual spot under one the great oaks, and leaned up against its trunk. She closed her eyes for a moment, and let her other senses take over. The sound of battle soon filled her ears, and when she opened her eyes, in the starry mist, she saw her son locked in combat with a fiery being that seemed to defy the laws of nature, disappearing and reappearing, and sinking into the ground to jump up and attack. The angel swiftly dodged her attack, and immediately launched into an attack of his own.

"He's becoming quite the fighter," a familiar voice came from behind. "I'm rather proud of him."

Dovepool looked back as her mate came up and put his arm around her.

"Yeah, me too. Although I hate to see him grow up forgetting where he came from. And then remember the forest in the most painful ways."

"I take it you two are closely connected to Pit."

Both Dovepool and Graystorm looked behind them. A black-haired apprentice with silver-gray wings growing out of his back stood there.

"Very insightful of you, youngster," Graystorm remarked. "What's your name?"

"Keto."

"I see..."

The gray tom's eyes fell on the necklace Keto was wearing.

"I've seen another warrior in Watertribe with that necklace. His name was Ripplefur. He fled from the forest, many years ago, along with son, Blackkit, when the old camp was destroyed."

Keto just gazed at it, and shrugged.

"I was given the necklace when I was little. By who, I don't remember." He then noticed that Graystorm had on a short necklace that was identical to one he'd seen Pit with once. "Are you Pit's father? I've seen Pit with that same necklace before."

Graystorm glanced down at his necklace, and nodded once.

"I'm surprised you would make that specific of an assumption. Yes I am, although Pit has never met me before, because I died in battle before he was born. Dovepool was his mother."

Dovepool nodded at the apprentice.

"I was very protective of Pit when I was raising him. A bit over-protective, actually. To the point I chose to run away from the forest with him, to find a safer place to raise him. All I did was carve out my own fate, and I froze to death while I was sleeping. I didn't expect to die so soon, and by the time I realized I'd met my fate, there wasn't anything I could do about it. But even here, I've never stopped caring about him, and it hurts me so much that the sole remaining way he remembers me now is through how he lost me, re-experiencing the grief and sorrow he felt years ago."

"Oh."

Keto went up and lightly nuzzled her arm. Dovepool put her arm on his shoulder, and dipped her head.

"Perhaps the one thing I don't regret doing, the one decision I feel happy about, was giving Pit his father's necklace when he was a year old. He would've completely forgotten the forest, had I not have given that to him."

Dovepool took her arm off of Keto, and turned to her mate. Much to Keto's surprise, she buried her face in his chest, and started crying. Graystorm put his arms around her, and gently nuzzled her.

"I suppose you could say the same thing about me."

That caught both Dovepool and Graystorm by surprise.

"What makes you say that?"

"I was a very close friend to Pit. I sort of viewed him more as a younger brother than a friend. We did everything together."

There was a slight flicker of emotion in the tom's dark brown eyes.

"It was really hard for me to see Pit right there in front of me when that Shemum claimed my life, seeing the look of horror and sorrow on his face upon realizing that I was dying. But at least I got the chance to say goodbye to him before I truly joined the ranks of Startribe."

Keto looked down for a second, and shuddered. Dovepool could see he was trying to push aside his feelings, and not let them get the better of him. After a few moments, he raised his head, all signs of emotion gone.

"You've got a lot of resilience in you, young one," Graystorm noted. "Something a lot of people out there need, but don't have."

"Like Pit...perhaps, I should take part in his leadership ceremony."

"Perhaps...when the time comes..."


Pit reached down into the front of his chiton, and pulled out his father's necklace, feeling its smooth surface. He tightly gripped it to his chest as his memories started to come back to him, before hiding it again.

"Pit," Chiron's solemn voice came from outside. "I want to show you something."

Although a bit reluctantly, he stood up and left the room. Chiron was sitting on the stairs leading to the entrance of the temple. Pit went up and sat down next to him.

"I wanted to show you this." The centurion held up a small necklace.

It was made using brown string and colored beads carved out of wood. The beads were colored blue and teal, and in the middle was a blue-green stone, much like the one on the necklace Pit had, but smaller.

"That's...that's Keto's necklace. I've seen him with it before."

Chiron nodded.

"I retrieved it from his body, which a group of monsters had left lying on the outskirts, to be disposed of."

Chiron handed the necklace to Pit.

"You can have it. I know that Keto was very close to you, and he meant a lot to you."

Pit examined the necklace, and held it close, as he recalled all his memories of the young angel. He shuddered as he started to recall Keto's death, and a part of him wanted to push away the memory, but he decided against it, and mentally braced himself as the battle that took place several months ago started playing in his head. He tried hard not to let his feelings get the better of him, but he couldn't help it when he recalled watching Keto bleed to death.

Ke-eet, to. Pit looked up at the trilling call of a tern, and sure enough, the white bird stood there, at the bottom of the stairs. The bird called again, then made what sounded like an imitation of a serpentine hiss. The bird turned like it was going to fly away, but then looked back, and called.

It's time for you to bring an end to what has begun.

Pit glanced over at his mentor, then headed inside. He came back out carrying his bow.

"Let's go."

Chiron nodded, then retrieved his own bow, and the two took off for Palutena's temple.

Surprisingly, not a great deal of monsters attacked them, despite how many there were. On occasion, a group of Syrens, or other monsters that were flying around would go after them, but with the aid of the Three Sacred Treasures, the creatures were easily defeated.

After some time, the massive temple came into view. As they approached the temple, an astral projection of Medusa appeared.

"Well, I'm very impressed that you've made it this far. You must be really desperate to save your goddess."

"You're finished, Medusa! I will defeat you!"

"You've got quite the spirit, little angel. But that's little compared to my power. Just try me."

It barely registered when several lasers flew out of nowhere, aimed for Pit. He flashed the shield up, and deflected them, then flew down to land.

That was when he saw the dark goddess. She was standing in the clearing in front of the temple's entrance, seemingly waiting.

"Here I am, angel. Come and face me!"

Pit narrowed his eyes, then shot several arrows at Medusa. Most of them missed, but Pit immediately launched into trying the charged ones. Medusa chuckled.

"Is that seriously all you got?"

The angel growled at that.

"Three Sacred Treasures, do your thing!"

Pit aimed his bow skyward as it flashed white, and arrows of light rained down on the clearing. Medusa wavered at the feeling of all the arrows penetrating her, then she roared, and conjured several red energy balls, shooting them at Pit. They came faster than he expected, and he wildly tried to dodge them. Chiron quickly stepped in, and shot down some of them, much to Medusa's surprise.

"How in the world did you break free of my spell? You're a centurion. You're not supposed to be able to break free."

"I'm not just a centurion. I have my own individual soul, my own personal will. That is what allowed me to escape your curse."

"Hm. Let's just test how strong that will of yours is..."

Before Chiron could do anything, Medusa shot a bright red laser at him, striking him in the chest. He fell to the ground, seemingly knocked out.

"Chiron!"

Pit flew up and shot several arrows at the dark goddess, to draw her attention away from Chiron. She turned around, and abruptly shot a spiky-looking ball of energy at the angel. He deflected it with his shield, and Medusa howled as the thing hit her back.

For a while, the two relentlessly shot projectiles at one another. The little angel was fast, and hard to hit as a result, much to Medusa's irritation.

"Let's just see how well you can dodge this!"

She conjured numerous arrow-tipped lasers and shot them a fraction of a second in between. They came so quickly Pit didn't have time to shield them, and several of them hit. One just barely grazed his cheek.

Without thinking, Pit charged at the goddess, and started attacking her directly. Surprisingly, it seemed to do more to her than shooting had, and he managed to slice a good-sized gash in her back.

"You little pest! I've had enough of you!"

Medusa abruptly lashed out with her claws, and successfully struck his wing. Pit yelped as pure pain shot up his wing, and he started to fall, helplessly beating his one good wing. But a second later, he clenched his jaw as he spread out his injured wing, and started beating it, desperately trying to stay airborne, despite the fact his wing was screaming with excruciating pain.

After a moment, he was able to stabilize himself, and he relaxed slightly. His eyes were glazed over with pain. He resumed relentlessly attacking her, but it wasn't long before one of the snakes of Medusa's hair lashed out at him. Too late, he tried to avoid it, and shrieked as sharp fangs dug into the unprotected part of his leg. Medusa chuckled as the snake held the caught angel up to her face.

"Well done, my pet," she purred, stroking the snake's head. "Now finish him."

The snake's eyes glittered with pride, and it tossed the angel into the air. Chiron, who'd finally come to, watched in horror as the serpent caught the angel in its mouth as he fell, and swallowed him whole.