Alchemist Spirit Knight Lucina
Chapter Twenty Nine- Viridi
Ever since Shulk first took the Monado in his hands, he'd been seeing the very scene unfolding in front of him constantly. Mr. L's machine's onslaught running straight through the body of his mentor, it was a scene that would never stop replaying in front of his eyes. It was always one of the worst things to see, something he desperately wanted to avoid. He should have known it was inevitable when that awful machine showed up, but he clung onto some desperate hope and cried out to Meta Knight, trying to warn him.
If he had just kept his mouth shut, perhaps he could have prevented it, but Meta Knight knew just as well as Shulk did that the battle was to be his last. If Shulk hadn't reminded him of that, perhaps he wouldn't have made a desperate attempt to change his fate, to show Shulk the future could be changed.
It couldn't, the vision had come true, nothing would change. Even after Meta Knight's limp body fell to the ground, the scene was burned into Shulk's eyes. It was just as he'd seen it so many times before, and it would stay that way for the rest of time. With foresight he was supposed to be able to avoid such awful fates, but instead, trying to change the future had caused it. Such a cruel twist of fate, but he supposed that was fitting. Like Rosalina had told the rest earlier, he was as much a weapon of the Star Eaters as he was Rosalina's. A weapon, not a person, he hated that designation more than words could say. His powers, that's what they made him.
Still, it was Shulk the living, breathing, thinking entity who blinked the tears out of his eyes and drew that cursed blade, dashing after the monster that had killed the closest thing he'd ever known to a father, spitting venom he barely knew was coming from his mouth at the Celestial Guardian. Yes, it was foolish to go after an enemy he knew he couldn't beat, but it was human instinct, something a weapon did not possess. Vaguely, he noted the other Knights and soldiers of Rosalina's joining him in his bid for revenge, but only Kirby, who had thought much the same of Meta Knight as he had made an impression in his mind.
Shots, not his own, but shots all the same fired at Mr. L. The girl who had reacted to his presence, the girl that Guardian was meant to torment, she lashed out vines at her former friend. They did little, but it seemed to be the only attack she knew to use. Calling out to her, he suggested an alternative "Try 'Petals'!", and she nodded, sending a bloody floral blast at the machine. The petals covered the glass which Mr. L sat behind, a distressed cry coming from the Guardian.
Attacks fired from the machine haphazardly, not hitting much besides buildings or the artificial sky. In this state, he was easy to take down, but not helpless. A cry of "I shall retreat for now, but be warned!" came from the Guardian before his machine vanished into nothing: his last defense. Of course, not even he would be foolish enough to stay behind when running such a risk of being overwhelmed.
Noting a few relieved sighs, Shulk shook his head. He'd seen that day many times before, enough to know more was coming. He readied his blade, turning towards the place he vaguely recalled seeing the next wave of foes spawn before.
A pool of violet light heralded the arrival of another Celestial Guardian, the same he had faced with the Alchemist Knights a week earlier. Grima bore a smug grin that noticeably faltered upon meeting Shulk's eyes. Shulk wasn't surprised: other things he'd seen of Grima crossing his path did seem to imply there was some familiarity between them, but he hadn't quite managed to see what the connection was yet. Other Star Eaters spawned from the portal as well. The creatures they'd swayed to their side, the people who had followed them, all of them bearing arms. This was to be a large battle, but it would end quickly, without much more bloodshed.
Another figure emerged from the portal, one Shulk knew he'd see there, but not necessarily on the enemy's side. A small girl with a blonde ponytail, a girl Pit had once known. The memory of her name came back to him now as he met her eyes.
"Viridi!" he cried. "Why would you take their side?"
The young plant mage smirked. "Haven't you seen that already, Star Seer?" she taunted before throwing a thorny shot his way.
Alchemist Spirit. Lucina had heard the term before, but she never gave it much thought. The way Pit had described it made it seem as if they were some sort of pass key that allowed them to unlock the cores' powers. The dark-winged boy standing in front of her, he was the last thing she would think to call a pass key. Drawing breath, showing pain in his eyes, he was certainly alive, at very least. Those memories Lucas had recited, they were very real. Not entirely legible, but most definitely real.
"The Knight of Light," Lucina called out. "Do you know who that is?"
Dark Pit took a step towards her. "Pull it out," he demanded. She barely had registered the meaning of his words when she found her fingers wrapping around the white core in her pocket and taking it out. Its creamy surface wasn't reacting, simply churning like fog.
"She's not here yet," he mused, his scarlet eyes flicking over the white stone. "But she will be soon enough. Until then," Once more, his staff was fixed upon Lucina's heart. "Run," he ordered in a whisper.
Swatting the staff away with the edge of her blade, Lucina shook her head. "We're on the same side, are we not?" she began.
"It's all in the name of self preservation," he muttered, trying to push his weapon up from its place pinned to the ground. "If I were to be killed in this flimsy body, the Light core would be useless. They'll kill me if they catch me trying to spare you, so it's in your best interest to pretend we're enemies until she comes, alright?"
Pit's voice called from behind her shoulder. "No way!" he cried. "You're one of our allies, and we won't let you be controlled by them! If anyone tries to hurt you, we'll take them on."
Extending his hand to the boy that looked so very like him, Pit grinned. "Besides, if we look the same, we must be connected somehow, right? And even if we aren't, I'm sure it must mean something. Come on, we'll take down those Star Eaters and you'll be safe, okay?"
A fleeting look of complete shock flew across Dark Pit's face, but it was quickly buried by a glare as he slapped the angel's hand away. "I don't need your pity," he hissed. "I don't need anyone's pity, and you won't want to give it to me when you see who I'm working under."
Lucina was completely lost by this point, but a glance between Dark Pit and Lucas showed her that she was simply out of the loop. The garbled memories, not everything had come out, had it? Lucas's eyes met Pit's, and a dull look of shock crossed his face. He mouthed something as his eyes drifted out of focus: "Palutena".
Viridi, she was working with the enemies. Shulk couldn't quite understand her motives for doing such a thing. Blocking her shots, he tried to meet her eyes. "You really don't care for loyalty, do you?" Shulk questioned.
"What has this place done for me?" she countered as she drove her staff into the ground. Vines shot up from where it was planted and soared towards Observatory soldiers. They disintegrated easily with very few shots to them, but the look on her face implied that was the point. "I'm not cut out to live in the skies anymore than a bird would be in the water," she remarked. "If I had stayed here, I wouldn't have ever been able to even scratch the surface of my own power."
That made logical sense, he supposed, at least as to why she might want to leave the Observatory, but not as to why she might try to attack it. "That doesn't explain why you'd attack us," he added, charging towards her, the blue light blade extending from his sword. Something coiled around his foot, making him unable to move.
"This place deserves to be brought down!" Viridi cried. "No one here is anything more than a walking defense force! You of all people should know that."
Cutting the coil of grass away from his foot, Shulk continued to rush towards her. "If we weren't, we'd all be dead," he protested.
A smug grin crossed her face. "Rosalina could easily just stop wandering around and find somewhere we could live safely," she countered. "You all are just too dull to notice she's the one putting you in danger."
He wished he could brush off her words, but he knew the truth in them. These were things he'd asked Rosalina many times before, things she told him he might come to understand when he was older. He was plenty old now, but he still couldn't see reason in this world, save for the purpose of combating the Star Eaters. That was his best defense: "We wouldn't have to fight if it wasn't for the Star Eaters. If you really wanted to escape this life, why join them? The only difference it makes is that it'd break Pit's heart to see you fighting against us like this. Is that why, because you want to make him pay for what happened to Palutena?"
"Idiot, can't you see I'm doing this for Pit?" she snarled, more arrows of thorns hurdling towards him. "Palutena, she's why I'm fighting with them in the first place, because she asked me to!"
The memories flowing into Pit's mind, they were ones he recognized from his youth, but not from his own eyes. The memories of himself, Viridi, and Palutena, his dead friend was nowhere to be seen in them. Instead, he was able to see himself clearly, matching up with what he recalled from his own memories. He felt words escape his lips in the trance-like state, but nothing quite registered until the odd connection cut out.
"Those memories were yours?" Pit exclaimed in disbelief, meeting the eyes of Dark Pit. "But they looked like-"
"Palutena's," he finished. "That's because they are."
"H-how would you have her memories?" he cried. "She's dead!"
His darker mirror sighed. "Celestial Guardians are powerful. They can easily make disappearance look like death, corpse and all."
"Celestial Guardian", "Light Spirit", "Knight of Light", the words echoed in his head, willing him to figure something out, but they were interrupted by a voice from behind him, a voice he'd never dreamed he'd hear again.
"Associating with the enemy, are you?" Palutena's voice questioned. "Servant, that is punishable by execution, as I know you have been told."
The words barely registered in Pit's mind. Palutena's voice, how was that possible? Without thought, he whirred around to face the voice, but inhaled sharply in shock upon seeing her. A golden mask covered her face, but it was unmistakably Palutena. Still alive, not a corpse, Pit hadn't caused the death of his best friend after all, had he?
"Circe!" Lucina suddenly cried out. "He's under our protection now, we won't allow you to harm hi-"
The Knight of Time's eyes flitted to the white core in her hand, which shone with light. The gasp that escaped her made things click into place for Pit. Dark Pit served the Knight of Light, one of the Celestial Guardians, and was made from memories, those of Palutena's to be exact. It seemed glaringly obvious now: Palutena was not only alive, but one of the Alchemist Knights, and also a Celestial Guardian.
Pit would have been thrilled to hear all this if it wasn't for that last part.
AN- Yeah, totally didn't see that coming. If you were paying attention, you might have noticed the Light core was activated the first time Circe/Palutena showed up, but considering Peach's core was also activated, no one else noticed it. Either way, they're all revealed now, yay! Now we can move on to overcoming that tiny little issue about Palutena being corrupted…
So, chapterly question: after the next chapter, I'm going to be putting out a bunch of Gaidens. Who's do you people want to see? I've only planned three so far, but I'd like to have at least five, if not more out before the second half of the story comes around (yes, the first half will be over next chapter), so give suggestions as to who's you'd like to see. Just a head's up, though, they won't be Lucina's, Ike's, or Marth's. They've got something special planned…
So, thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik