Dark Samus shoved a group of seven Spirits inside a pocket dimension filled with other prisoners of their kind.

Seeing them, Young Zelda sighed. "So, who were your friends?"

One of them, a warrior named Aeron, said that he didn't know. "We never had any. Heck, we had no idea how any Fighters could survive that."

"This can't truly be the end of the Fighters!"

Hector the Devil Forgemaster spoke up. "She has a point. Heavy Lobster and I got separated from Cloud and thrown in here, but that doesn't automatically mean he was defeated."

"So we just have to have faith in Luigi and Cloud—they'll save us!" Nino exclaimed supporting him.

Hearing those names triggered something inside Aeron. "A Fighter…I was stabbed by one. He held me by his blade and smiled like a madman. I don't remember anything else about him."

Hector gasped. "A blade?"

"Yes. And the last thing I saw was a flash of purple."

"So they find him."

Paper Bowser could not contain himself and let out a Freudian slip: "Well, we're as good as doomed."

Zeke scolded the Koopa King. "Bowser! We must have hope. Besides, we can't rule out the possibility that the perpetrator wasn't Cloud!"

"Look, I'm sorry, pretty boy, but this little girl is expecting that the last of the Fighters, our supposed savior, is a guy who's afraid of his own shadow. We'll be stuck here forever."

"As unlikely as it may seem, we have no other option. I believe that something like this wouldn't have happened if there wasn't some way out of it."

"Tch! Keep dreaming."

"Do you not have the faintest glimmer of hope of seeing your son again?"

"N-No."

"That's what I thought."

The Fighters returned to the center of the Dark Realm where Dharkon was waiting for them. His voice boomed across the sky as he stared at them. "How? How dare you defeat my chief lieutenants and steal away my children?"

Mario stepped out in front. "Why explain that to you when I can show you?" He reflected one of Dharkon's projectiles with his cape. "You're a-gonna pay for what you did to everyone, and then you're gonna pay again for what you did to my brother!" He let out a massive war cry as he jump-punched Dharkon in the eye.

"Graaaagh! A measly human? Hurting me? Impossible!"

Mario focused all of his might into defeating Dharkon, who warped behind a veil of dark energy, but it wasn't long before he reemerged. A section of the Dark Realm's sky began to collapse. Galeem had returned.

The two beings and their armies waged a full-on three-front war on the Fighters and each other.

"What should we do now?" Zelda asked, "This is truly an enormous dilemma."

Both Mario and Luigi could hear Galeem and Dharkon tell them at the same time to kill the other eldritch for separating the brothers.

("Dharkon poisoned him. Think of what would happen if all the world were strangled by that vile being.")

("Need I remind you that light made all this possible. Light turned your world to cinders. Light took away your friends, your family, your everything, especially the brother you hold oh so dear.")

It took all of Luigi's strength not to snap.

Mario told them that their first priority should be rescuing the remaining Fighters.

"Well, yeah. That's obvious," Bowser grunted.

"It looks like the nearest route to the battle is this way."

Samus noticed a trail of light that led further into Dharkon's lair. "Before we start our attack, look."

"Huh? I never noticed that path."

Dash Bowman could see the Fighters coming. "Everyone, come look! It's the Fighters, almost all of them! And they've brought friends. R.O.B., Fox! Falco! Over here!"

The Fighters heard the Spirits' pleas. "Hold on. Do you hear that? Dash!? What are you doing here?" Fox cried out in surprise.

Lord Fredrik rudely interrupted their reunion. "Never mind that! Now hurry up and free us before that corrupted guards come back!"

Kirby used his Air Cutter to destroy the barriers sealing the captured Spirits away and set them free. All those that had companions hurried to their friends. Even among them, one stood out from the crowd in her excitement and enthusiasm.

Nino tackle-hugged her former companion and shouted his name: "Luigi!"

He jubilantly caressed her in his arms as well. "Nino!"

"Eliwood, Lyn, Ninian, come here! This is the guy I was telling you about!"

Mario was pleasantly surprised to see his little brother on such good terms with a Spirit. Meanwhile, Nino was introducing her friends to the pair.

Nino turned to the older Mario Brother and gasped. "You must be Luigi's big brother! He's told me all about you."

"Did he now?"

"Of course he did! Like that time you Ground Pounded an entire planetoid into a giant monster's face, and when you single-handedly saved an entire island from a dark and flooded curse!"

Something about someone else singing his praises on the level his brother does caused Mario to shrug his shoulders and blush. "Well, I don't know about single-handedly…Uh, sounds like you two really make a great team."

"Now that ve're free, let's give those monsters vho put us in there a piece of our minds!" Von Kaiser shouted.

"Be careful!" said Mei Ling, "Word's been going around that Dharkon found himself a new commander, a Fighter they say, and that nothing brings a smile to their face more than the culling of those taken by Galeem!"

"Sounds a lot like the corrupted Fighter that Luigi warned us about."

"But something doesn't add up," Robin articulated. "These guys are telling us that someone could see their smile, but Dark Samus never shows her face, if she has one at all, but we already eliminated Bayonetta, Palutena, and Roy. So who could it be?"

Ike stepped forward. "Don't worry Summons. Whoever it was, we rescued them, and they're back to normal now."

Aeron showed his gratitude. "Thank goodness for that. I was so terrified at the prospect of having to face him again."

"Summons?" wondered Isabelle.

Robin explained the situation to her: "That's what we called them before you guys showed up in order to improve the mood for the team. Cloud can tell you more."

"Okay!" Isabelle jumped just high enough to cling to Cloud's right shoulder.

The Fighters' and Spirits' journey was mostly smooth from there until Pit screamed.

"What is it, Pit?"

"Lady…Palutena…"

Palutena stood behind an army of Puppet Fighters created by Galeem that was led by Roy. She spoke. "Our soon to be perfect world will be purified of the darkness that has brought nothing but despair and ruin."

On the other side, Bayonetta and Dark Samus mirrored Palutena and Roy's army with Dharkon's stolen puppets. Upon hearing Palutena's declaration, an uncharacteristically flat-toned Bayonetta issued her command: "Children of darkness, kill them."

The soldiers on both sides charged at each other.

Greninja suggested that they take out Galeem first before he can fully recover.

"But then that will give Dharkon time to heal," Simon replied.

Shulk focused his powers until experienced a new vision: Galeem had been defeated, and anywhere that the vines of darkness hadn't already taken hold, they filled up the skies until the entire atmosphere around the Fighters had been smothered. Dharkon had destroyed the Master Hand army and put Galeem in chains before impaling him with a final set. With Galeem's death and Dharkon's rise to power, the world was slowly being depleted of whatever light had survived the conflict. The Fighters were dumbfounded at what this would mean for them. Then, without warning, Mario fell to his knees and collapsed lifelessly on his stomach. Peach and Kirby ran to him, trying to get him up, but they too could not survive without light. One by one, all those who had been in Galeem's control also fell. Dark Pit also knew that without Pit, he would die too. With his last bit of life force, he fired an arrow at Dharkon's eye, but the Dark Lord had gained so much power that he was nigh unstoppable. He killed the angel in a cruel way out of retaliation and to set an example for the rest. The others could do nothing but watch and struggle to resist Dharkon's influence as he clasped the entire world in his all-encompassing forces of darkness.

Shulk then said, "It won't work. There's only one thing we can do. We must strike at both their armies at the same time."

"But that'll never work!"

"It's the only way."

Pit mustered up his courage and stated his plan: "I'll take down Galeem and save Palutena!"

Dark Pit pointed in the opposite direction and said, "And I'll go that way so I can ignore you."

The original Master Hand and Crazy Hand ambushed them. "We won't allow it."

The sheer number of Fighters quickly brought the Hands back to their senses, though it would take some time before they could regain consciousness after their treatment at the mercy of Dharkon and Galeem.

The first Fighter the group saved was Roy. When he saw them, he couldn't believe his eyes, not helped by the fact his vision was becoming blurry due to tears welling up. "Eliwood, and mother too; Lillina, and Hector. I missed you guys so much!"

Right after they rescued him, a massive wave of darkness took hold of the immediate area.

"We should probably strike there next."

The Fighters went back towards Dharkon's army and rescued Dark Samus before intercepting a clash between Bayonetta and Palutena, saving them both. All the Fighters were saved, but the Hands were still controlled. That was, until the Fighters rescued them too, for it was the Hands who created them and that only they could open the way to Galeem and Dharkon.

Master Hand turned to the other Fighters before entering the void. "If I don't come back; Mario, Kirby, Link, Pikachu…You were always my most favorite creations." With those words, the one who had brought each and every Fighter to life left to Galeem and Dharkon.

King Dedede slammed his hammer down with so much power, he actually startled several of the Fighters. "I KNEW HE HAD SOMETHING FOR THAT OVERSIZED MARSHMALLOW AND FAUX-PLUMBER WITH A RED HAT!"

Galeem and Dharkon called forth essences of the Fighters to prevent them from destroying the barriers preventing the Fighters from getting through.

Richter heard explosions similar to the ones at Dracula's Castle that defeated him and described them to the others, but then he saw similar phantasms of the Fighters that were trapped in the Light Realm, only they were a sky-blue color with red eyes. He quickly surmised that they were of Galeem's creation. "Those things are gonna blow the Hands to patches. We have to help them!"

Master Hand transmitted a message to them. "No, this is our fight. It is much too dangerous for you. And I must atone for my sins."

The azure Belmont begrudgingly put his whip back into an attachment on his belt.

It was a long battle, but when the Hands finally returned, they were triumphant, but horribly injured. Nevertheless, they were happy, as their assault allowed the Fighters to take the battle directly to the two monsters.

The final battle was about to begin.