Alchemist Spirit Knight Lucina

Chapter Thirty- Palutena

"Palutena!" Pit called out, despite knowing fully well it was useless. She was a Celestial Guardian, she was the enemy, and yet, she was Palutena. She was the friend he had been too weak to save, standing before him. Without any indication of recognition behind her mask, she raised the blue staff she was carrying and a fiery shot came from it.

Malice filled her voice, but it was still hers. "Starstorm Knight," she chuckled coldly. "I see great sorrow in you." A broken smile spread across her face, the kind that crossed someone's face before they dropped an axe on their prey. "Make that sorrow surface, show your tears to the only person who cares about you, show him this world is one that cannot be salvaged!"

Dark energy pulsed around him. He felt faint, as if the ground below him would give out at any moment. A horrible pain filled his chest and Palutena seemed to grow more distant. She really was dead, wasn't she? He hadn't just killed her, he'd allowed her to become a monster. It was his own fault she was lost. Palutena, if she still existed, she'd hate him for giving her that fate. Viridi, his other best friend, she hated him. He was inept at the job he'd been given, often being more of a liability than help. Rosalina only cared for him out of pity. Meta Knight never cared about him. Kirby was too young to know how worthless he was. Even Shulk, he probably didn't care either. Someone as powerful and smart as he was, Pit was a fool if he thought someone like that would ever care about him. And the core wrapped around his hand, it was surely a mistake. Pit, he was a mistake himself.

Tears ran down his face, burning in his eyes. He was truly a pitiful excuse for an angel, unable to protect anyone at all. The pain in his chest grew deeper, a fiery knife twisting its way into him. Worthless, silly Pit, he was a waste of space and a liability. The knife cut into his heart, burning, and he heard a weeping cry escape his mouth.

A light hand suddenly rested on his shoulder. Lucina's voice echoed behind him, piercing through the darkness around him. "I know it must be hard to see your friend like this, but I promise, we'll save her, no matter what it takes!" she vowed.

Palutena came back into focus, as did the dark stream of energy coming from her staff. Pit's mind woke up. Those awful thoughts, they weren't truly his, were they? He'd never think his friends didn't care about him, it was impossible to think that way about people who had fought on his side, protecting him and helping him on countless occasions. The tears burned a bit less, the pain lightened.

A grunt of annoyance came from Palutena, who took a step forwards and jabbed her staff towards Pit. The pain returned, stronger than ever. Who was he kidding, his brain seemed to scream in a voice much like this broken Palutena's, he was completely worthless. What light was there left in a world where he had to fight against her? If he were to join her, who would even care? It wasn't as if he was anything more than a liability to Shulk. Running a blade through him, surely not even that would hurt him…

Another part of his brain cried out, a different voice that sounded vaguely familiar. "Shut up, of course that isn't true!", it insisted. "It's not completely hopeless, there's surely a way to save her, and even if there isn't, the Alchemist Knights need you! I saw it myself, Shulk really does care about you a lot. You're practically the only thing that keeps him sane, so get a hold of yourself, Pit!"

The pain in his chest ebbed away as a loud cry came from Dark Pit, who rushed at Palutena and shot a blast from his staff at the golden mask covering her face. A scream of pain came from Palutena, just as it had when that Aurum had attacked her. She held the broken remnants of the mask to her face with one hand, and used the other to point her blue-tipped staff at Dark Pit. "Y-you…", she muttered. "I trusted you!" Her voice turned to a roar, and her other hand grasped the staff, causing the mask to fall from her face. She looked just the same after all this time, barely a day of the three years that had passed since he last saw it showed, save for the bloody gash on her cheek where the broken mask had seemingly cut her.

An odd smirk crossed the dark-winged boy's face. "You said this merited the death penalty," he chuckled, as if daring her to strike. "So go ahead, kill what separates you from your mind, Palutena."

A barrage of flaming shots struck Dark Pit, and he stumbled backwards. As he collapsed, Lucina rushed towards Palutena, striking her staff with her blade.

"N-now," Dark Pit coughed out in a strained voice, unfocused eyes trying to hold contact with Pit's. "Try to get through to her. Should be easier with me gone."

Pit ran for the collapsed angel, grabbing his hand. He was bleeding a bit where Palutena had struck him, and his face seemed pale, but he wasn't quite dead yet. "We're not going to let you die!" he vowed, though he wasn't sure how he'd enact that claim. "Lucina, try stopping time, maybe that'll-"

Dark Pit gave a weak shake of his head. "Don't bother. The Light core won't do anything with me gone, but you should be able to save her with one of the other purity spells. Just try to protect her, okay?" He closed his eyes, as if resigning to death.

"Come on, there's got to be another way!", Pit cried. Though he barely knew him, Dark Pit cared about Palutena too, and he hadn't done a thing to deserve death.

Lucina cried "Freeze!", and an odd quiet set over the area. The bleeding seemed to slow, but it didn't affect Dark Pit's slight fidgeting. Palutena also seemed unaffected by it, and continued to battle Lucina. The Knight of Time tossed the Light core towards the two angels, shouting "The Light core has a healing spell, maybe since it's yours you can activate it."

Eyes fluttering open, Dark Pit shook his head. "No, this is the only way to stop them from getting stronger," he insisted. "Palutena can't be saved any other way, and therefore Pit can't be either. I'm not huge on dying, and I don't really care what happens to you, but if it saves the world, it has to happen."

The girl with the rose staff was eagerly engaging Shulk in combat. Peach heard the things she said, it was clear this "Pit" was important to both of them. Pit, that was the name of the angel she'd met, wasn't it? The one that had almost seemed to be Shulk's younger brother, judging by the way they interacted. Unless the blond was hiding wings under the red vest he wore, it likely wasn't biologically the case, but the bond was certainly present.

She could hear their conversation continuing, Shulk asking how someone named Palutena could have possibly asked her to join the Star Eaters. The girl's reply, however, caught Peach's attention, though for a different reason than it did Shulk.

"Well, she calls herself Circe now, and she doesn't remember me, but it's definitely her! I don't know how, so I joined her to figure it out. Surely you can understand that?", she explained.

"Circe?" This Palutena, she'd been the one to take Luigi, then, and the rose girl was working with her. Shulk gave a hollow stare before smiling, for some odd reason. "So that's why I saw her," he mused. "One more mystery solved. We can help her, if you stop attacking us."

The rose girl looked annoyed. "I might have come for Palutena, but I stayed because I agree with them! Rosalina is an awful leader and she needs to be brought down, even if it hurts people in the process."

"I didn't want to fight you," Shulk muttered. "But it looks like we don't have a choice. Peach, help me out here!"

Wondering vaguely when she'd told him her name, Peach turned towards the rose girl and called out "Petals!", sending a pink blast her way. A wave of her staff easily dispelled them, and she gave an odd smirk.

A violet glow came from Shulk's blade as he rushed towards the rose staff girl. Narrowly, she avoided his blows before calling a massive spear of vines from the ground and sending it towards him. Only quick thinking and Peach's call of "Vines!" was able to stop it from soaring through his body, as she was able to redirect the spear and take control of it. That girl was definitely aiming to kill, Peach saw that clearly. She hated to hurt someone, but if she didn't push back at the vines, it would surely run through someone else.

The vines struggled against Peach's control, trying to veer towards a group of nearby fighters. She couldn't dispel them, but perhaps if she was able to break that staff, she could break the other girl's hold on them. She tried to focus the spear on the staff, tried not to hit the girl, but a bright blast soared past her head, breaking her concentration. Before she knew what had happened, the vines disappeared and the rose staff girl fell to the ground, a scarlet pool oozing from her body. She couldn't bear to look at the wounds for too long, but they looked lethal.

Horror filled Peach's entire being. What had she done?

As the scarlet eyes lightly closed once more, Pit tightened his grip on Dark Pit's hand. The core around his own made contact with the dark angel's hand and suddenly started to pulsate with a cyan glow. Something occurred to Pit: he'd never known how they were connected. Somehow, they must have been. Did he just take the shape of someone important in Palutena's memory, corrupted by the dark magic that conjured him? If so, would that make him able to use Pit's own powers? A silly idea popped in his mind, one that was so utterly idiotic it might just work. "Try calling out 'Air' with me," Pit ordered. "If we're the same, maybe it'll help somehow. Count of three, okay?"

Dark Pit shook his head, not even bothering to open his eyes.

"One."

The clanking of metal rang out as Lucina's blade struck Palutena's staff. "Why would you save him?" Palutena suddenly asked. "If he truly is some key to stopping me as you claim him to be, wouldn't it be better to just let him die?"

"Two."

"There has to be a better way to save you than to let an innocent die!" Lucina answered forcefully, punctuated by another blow.

"Three!" Pit called out. "Now, Air!"

Dark Pit repeated the word, though the voice saying it seemed disconnected and lifeless.

A soft light enveloped the two. Pit felt light and a bit dizzy, as if his body and soul were floating away from each other. Fog seemed to cover the world, and he vaguely wondered if that was what was supposed to happen.

The fog was penetrated by a thousand balls of light. If he strained his eyes, he could see each was in fact a person. Lucina, Palutena, the blond boy, they each lay lifeless in front of him. Further out, he could feel others, but they were too distant to make out. "What is this?" he asked aloud, not understanding what was in front of him.

"The Air core isn't like the rest of them," Dark Pit explained, seeming to almost appear beside him. "It allows you to reach out to people's spirits. If you wanted to, you could hop in someone else's body, or pull someone else into yours. It has a few attacks, but this is the only useful thing it really does."

"'Pull someone else into my body?'", he repeated. "Then how 'bout you share my body?"

A sigh answered him. "I'd rather just die, thanks."

"There must be something I can do," Pit muttered. "Can you tell me how, exactly this weird connection to Palutena works?"

"This body was constructed from her memories as a way to keep them from returning, allowing her to become a Celestial Guardian without fear of her turning on them," he told. "It looks like a messed up version of you because so many of her memories were about you."

Though he really didn't have much of a body to do it with, Pit smiled. Palutena still cared about him, after all that time. Even after he'd gotten her killed, he was still important to her. If he have had eyes at the moment, he was sure they'd be tearing up. "There's a bond between you and Palutena, so maybe we can change that bond into one between us," he muttered, unsure of where the words were coming from. Something flashed at the word "bond", was that the key? He repeated the word, putting all of his heart into it. Something told him that it was the key to saving Dark Pit.

The fog vanished with a start, and Pit felt something surrounding him: his own body. Dark Pit stared at him in disbelief. "You seriously just did that?" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"Why, what did I do?"

A single glance at his darker copy told him that whatever it had been, it had worked. The wounds were all but nonexistent, only the singed tear in his tunic and vague remnants of blood staining it indicating they had ever been there. "You tied this body and part of my spirit to yourself. That spell usually doesn't work like that, but I guess since part of me is already bound to Palutena, it split the difference and left this part of me in here."

"Does that mean the block is gone?" Pit questioned. "I mean, if your body is part of me and not Palutena-"

He was cut off by a pained groan from the green-haired girl. She'd dropped her staff and was holding her head, like she used to do whenever a headache struck her. "Wh-what is this?" she questioned. "I-I don't understand. Who are these people?"

Pushing off of the ground quickly, Pit dashed to his friend's side. "Palutena," he called softly. "Can you hear me?"

Her hands dropped back to her side as her eyes widened in disbelief. "All these things I've done- how many people did I hurt?" she asked in a voice that sounded broken, but more like the one Pit remembered.

He felt something being pressed in his hand. A glance down told him it was the Light core. A small smile graced his lips as he handed it to the friend he thought he had lost. She stared at him and began to ask something, but he cut her off. "It doesn't matter what you did, because it wasn't you who did it," Pit assured her. "Palutena, just wake up and come home, alright? We'll be best friends, just like it used to be, and we'll save the world together, alright?"

Though shock and confusion still filled her face, Palutena took the core in her hand. "What kind of fool would give an enemy a weapon?" she mused, before shaking her head. "These memories, you were like that, weren't you? Always thinking the best of people."

The only answer he gave was a smile and a nod. "You still have faith in me, after all this time." A sad smile crossed her face as she closed her fingers around the white core. "Alright then, if you believe I can be saved, perhaps I can. Light!"

The white enveloped her, changing her robes into a white dress with an elaborate set of gold jewelry accenting it. "Call out 'Lux' to drive out the dark magic," ordered Lucina.

Giving a nod, Palutena held the core in front of her chest and called "Lux!", squinting her eyes shut as if bracing for an impact. An arrow of brilliant light shot from the core, piercing through Palutena's heart. A wave of dark energy exited her body, and her eyes shot wide open. An odd smile came to her face. "Pit," she muttered, her voice sounding whole and completely like her own. "Please forgive me for putting you through all of that. And I know I did awful things, but I promise I never meant to hurt anyone!"

Tears filled Pit's eyes as he threw his arms around his old friend. "It's okay," he assured her. "I told you, it doesn't matter anymore." Having her beside him, it felt as if a gaping hole in his heart was being filled. "Just promise you won't leave again?"

Palutena sobbed. "Promise."

Part One- End

AN- Hey, look, I gave someone a happy ending for once. Well, unless Viridi actually died, then it's still not really happy for them. But part one is over, all the Alchemist Knights are present, and the only thing left is to break them beyond repair. Luckily, there's a big bonus chapter I'm putting out tomorrow that clocks in at more than nine thousand words, which should shed some light on exactly how I plan to do so.

So, chapterly question: do you think Viridi is actually dead? I mean, it could go either way, but she might just be horribly injured, and this is totally not just me feeling bad for giving her such a gory end and trying to see if I can salvage her and not make one of our protagonists a murderer. Also, more Gaiden suggestions would be nice.

Anyways, thank you all for reading! It's awesome to think so many people love this story so much, and I really do love writing it. So, here's to the end of part one and the beginning of part two! –Twilight Joltik