A/N:

The aftermath of the battle. The first non-Mac chapter - Palutena and Pit's voices... and some of their secrets are finally revealed.

Act I: Climbing the Mountain

Volume 9: Secrets of an Angel

[ - Palutena - ]

( - Snowpoint City [Nighttime] | Pokémon Diamond and Pearl - )

"What do you mean, it doesn't count?"

The tournament arbiter gave me a look as though he'd been repeating the last sentence he'd been saying for the last four years.

His face was unflinching.

Punchable, too.

"Ma'am, it doesn't count because his opponent, Ganondorf, reached the blast line after he himself did." His weaselly face pulled into a facetious grin.

"How far!? What was the time difference?"

The measly goblin pointed to the documents he held. "Sixty-three milliseconds."

"How accurate are your sensors?"

"To the nearest millisecond."

"Shouldn't that c-count as a tie?"

"Ma'am, there are no such things as ties in Smash."

"That's absolute bullshit!" I shouted, trying not to lose it. A hand gripped my arm, holding me back.

"Ma'am, we've thoroughly reviewed the frame-by-frame data. Little," he stopped, smirking that ugly grin, "Mac lost. Again, he cannot be said to receive the final stock as the match technically concluded before his opponent's final stock was taken.

"These are just the tournament rules," he said with a wily, slick smile, "so, I'm afraid you're just going to have to accept that." He swivelled on his knock-kneed legs, beginning to creep out of the room.

"You fu-"

The demon stopped abruptly. "Ma'am, I will have you know that if you threaten an official Ultimate League official, you may be disqualified from participating in any future matches and/or subsequent tournaments." The nasal pitch of his voice grated my ears. He sneered, oozing malicious compliance.

"I'll be getting off. Have a good night." With that, the shrivelled mass of flesh turned around and left the room.

"Screw that guy."

"Yeah…" Pit turned to me, gripping my whitening fist, with a reassuring but weak smile. "Hey, uh… Sonic's texted."

"And?"

"He ran all the way there, and he's finally gotten, er, clearance at the hospital to see Mac." It was just past midnight, and I was exhausted.

Mac's match, the last of the night, finished at ten thirty.

The last two hours was a wild back-and-forth. Sonic left early to run to the hospital - being on the southernmost tip of Smashville, the stadium was only a few k's from it but that was by ferry or the private underground tunnel the medical staff used.

Neither of those routes were accessible.

Sonic had to go all the way up north, through the city, the suburbs and then back south again because not a single person gave us any single update on Mac's condition.

The speed at which he flew…

I didn't even see it happen.

It was one, then the next. A loud 'boom' had sounded, double in volume, before the fanfare muffled it, and neither of them were there. Footage had to be reviewed three times, before coming to the conclusion, that totally dogshit conclusion.

I rubbed my eyes.

I remembered my heart stopped beating, watching him go from centre-stage to nothing, and recalled hearing the voice in my brain yell out 'he's dead'.

He was close to… he could've… almost…

Died.

It wouldn't have been the first time something of the sort happened.

A similar story went with the exact same move - almost two decades ago. The story ran deep amongst the Smashers - a certain unbelievably light electric-type Pokémon had been launched at over two hundred percent by the move, right at the edge of Final Destination in one of the last matches of the Melee tournament. A few hours afterward, no one suspected a thing; but, come the next tournament, the competitor was nowhere to be seen.

Come this tournament, years later, he's number nineteen on the roster.

Being the equivalent of an animal in its respective world, it would have been incredibly easy to replace. No one would suspect a thing with little variation between members of the same species.

After all, they lack the ability to communicate with all but psychics, and how would the new Pichu have known a thing about his 'replacement'? And anyways - close to twenty years ago - how would anyone have remembered that incident?

Too easy, convenient to cover up, and I panicked.

That could've happened to him. A regular human with no powers, trademark weapons, or anything, low-mid-tier in the last tour - in the eyes of the public… forgettable.

My heart had shot itself in a hurry.

"Lady Palutena, are ya there?" I would've normally appreciated the adorably concerned look on Pit's face, but I could feel nothing right now.

"...Yeah."

"Should I call a cab or something?" He clumsily swiped about on his phone, walking outside. I hadn't said a word, but he went about it anyways. At least the reading lessons led somewhere…

Something buzzed in my pocket.

I'm sorry I couldn't come today, girl.

It happened again...

No problem, I understand. I'm certain Mac will too.

Yeah

I guess…

What do you mean?

You sound a little uneasy, are you alright?

( - NEW UNREAD MESSAGES [6], MISSED CALLS [2] - )

[22:30] I'm fine

[22:57] I heard about what happened to Mac from Falcon he ok?

(Missed call at 23:30)

[23:32] Palutena? You there?

[23:33] Respond if you got this at all?

[23:46] No judgment if anything happened please just call

(Missed call at Saturday, 8th August, 00:07)

[00:08] Palutena pick up god please I'm stressing out.

Oh no.

"Jane," I spoke wearily, "apologies for not contacting you earlier."

"Oh my goodness, you finally picked up why didn't you pick up-"

"I-" I barely got the chance to start.

"-please just tell me what the situation is, top to bottom, is Mac mad, angry, that I didn't come, what exactly happened to him? Is he in the hospital, w-where is he? Uh, er- do you have contacts with him? Is he fine, is he okay?"

"Jane, relax - Mac is in the hospital and Sonic is with him right now. We're about to go over there, and I know you're panicked, so stay on the line-"

"Yeah I know but it sounds really bad from what they said, my god what if he-"

"I know. You don't have to tell me." I shook my head. Pit raised the phone to me, a number already available. $47.50? What the hell?

"I know, I was thinking the same thing," Pit lamented, "but we've gotta go for Mac first. I got the license plate here too. Take it?"

"Yeah, go on outside, I'll meet you," I replied, removing the phone from my ear. He left the dark, empty lobby of the stadium, bar a receptionist and the security guard working the night shift.

"Uhh… do, do you want me to go meet you there?"

"No, no, don't - you have a match tomorrow - you've got to recover for then. I sent Falcon home too for the same reason - you're no different. Plus," I glanced furtively over my shoulder, to check Pit had left the lobby, "your… condition."

"Yeah, that - earlier, it- it happened again, and I don't know whether I'll be good for tomorrow."

"That's twice this week, right?" I softened my voice.

"...Yeah. It's only happened four times this entire tournament, and I'm afraid," she paused. I heard a long, shaky, unstable breath being drawn, and saw her grab something for support, closing her gray eyes in my mind's eye. "-I'm afraid that this tour, it might be it."

"Jane…"

"No- stop." The way she shaped her words was like she was talking to herself more than to me. "Mac's condition is right now, much, much worse." I opened my mouth, but was stopped. "We'll talk tomorrow, yeah? Don't worry about it." I felt a brave smile come to Jane's voice in those last few words.

"I promise you can call me anytime you want, Jane. I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier, I was just… just busy with dealing with people and everything."

"No problem, Palutena. Have a good night; text me about Mac, I put my phone on silent so there's no worries about waking me up, okay?"

"Yeah. Sleep well."

She laughed weakly. "Depends on whether I can."

I set the phone down, pressing the screen lightly. Shadows cast by the streetlights outside darkened the vacant lobby. I glazed over, emptying the thoughts of Jane and Mac and all these things that swarmed, little insects that demanded my attention that I knew were important but were so far out of my control it was futile to address them, and more effective to swat them away.

Take your own advice.

One thing at a time.

Slowly.

"You comin'?" Pit called. A blue taxi pulled up on the side of the pavement next to him.

"Yeah, yeah." I strode out of the stadium's glass doors to the waiting car. Pit courteously opened the side door for me. His tired grin still held a bit of cheek to it.

"After you, m'lady."

"Much appreciated," I replied, sitting on the rightmost seat.

"You're welcome, Lady Palutena." Pit slammed the door shut.

The cab driver wordlessly gripped the wheel and off we went.

[ - Pit - ]

( - Gate Theme | Pokémon Black and White - )

"Good evening, ma'am and sir," the female nurse said slowly, having emerged from a nearby office. Her frizzy auburn hair flew under the blowing fan. Doctors milled about, holding clipboards and wielding cold stethoscopes.

"Evening, miss." I bowed my head.

She smiled exhaustedly. "Apologies for the wait: I understand that it's late. Your friend Mac is… well," she cleared her throat, "I might as well let you see him first. He's stable."

Lady Palutena breathed out suddenly in relief. "Oh, thank god."

"Follow me." The curly-haired woman walked down the corridor. "In there," she pointed at a wooden door, opening it.

Sonic sat next to the asleep Mac on the bed. Mac had a nasty black eye, and his head was propped up strangely on the pillow, some tubes coming out of his nose and mouth. Pretty standard for him, to be honest, but this time he looked in bad shape.

Lady Palutena strode over to Sonic. Every time she walked, it was like a reminder of how tall she was, especially in the heels. "How are you?"

"I'm tired, Palutena," he laughed. "I remember in Tournament 4 he got injured a lot, but never this badly - they had to grab an ambulance this time round. Most of the time they're stable enough to just use a H-Pod and go, but not today, obviously." Sonic's laugh was kinda forced. He sounded exhausted.

"What's the condition?"

"Getting hit by the Volcano Kick strained his left trapezius muscle quite badly." She pointed briefly to the same muscle on her own body. Looking at it, his head rested closer to the injured muscle, so it wouldn't be further stretched. "Sternum bone is healing quite well, but the third and fourth ribs were fractured in the battle."

"Gods, that sounds severe."

"Yeah, well, you couldn't see him earlier… that was actually because we had to operate on him because of the severe internal bleeding. The only real reason he's going to be out within a few days is because of those," the nurse pointed up at the healing cubes, "things. Magic, but bloody expensive to operate."

"Well, it's good to hear that Mac isn't doing so bad. Is that all?"

"That's the most of it, but I think you also might've noticed this in the battle - Mac took a really bad shot to the testicles, too," She shuddered. "Although it's bad, it's not to the point that it's medical; still, he'll be feeling that for a while - honestly speaking, knowing his opponent - he might have trouble walking for a bit." I cringed a little, recalling the way Ganondorf's feet slammed forcefully into him - and, the steel outline of the bottom of the boot. It was with serious intent too.

"-Oh." Lady Palutena winced.

"Yeesh," Sonic replied.

"Will he be battle-ready for next week?"

"I would say yes, but he'll likely still be affected by the injuries sustained today. But like with everything medical, we'll have to see." The nurse nodded, bun bobbing up and down. "Should I take it that you want to stay the night here? There are resting rooms nearby."

"Sonic, you have a game in two days," Lady Palutena nodded. "You've already done your part, rushing here like this. Go home and get some sleep."

"What about you two?"

"My battle is one of the last this round," I finally spoke up. It bore down on me to even speak. "I'll be fine."

"Yeah, and I'm safe," Lady Palutena nodded. "We'll stay here tonight."

"Alright." He smiled sleepily. "Mac's lucky - he's in good hands."

"Want me to grab ya a cab?"

"Nah, I'll be fine, Pit; thanks, though. Goodnight." Sonic offered a salute, to which Lady Palutena and I both reciprocated. He left the room with the nurse, who called out, "I'll show you to your rooms after I lead him downstairs!"

"What a hospitable lady," Lady Palutena commented, sitting down in the comfy-looking armchair Sonic was just on.

"Yeah, I agree." I plopped down on the plastic seat next to her.

I felt tiredness creep up on me.

My head lulled a little to the side. I'd been used to resisting it, staying vigilant for Lady Palutena and Skyworld, but, right now, it seemed just about… safe. On passive alert. She smiled serenely, eyes half-opened, half-closed, as she looked at Mac in the corner. He was dead to the world, enraptured in a strangely comforting manner.

I caught myself staring at her, and the realisation of it pricked my skin a bit. My eyebrows, I felt, shot upwards, but she made no notice, instead staring at Mac's sleeping figure. His eyelids were closed comfortably, nothing at all going on behind them.

To be honest, I wanted to feel that way.

A knock sounded on the door. I turned to see the welcoming nurse from before.

"Would you like to go to a guest room, young man?" She was talking directly to me, and not Lady Palutena. Swivelling around, I saw Lady Palutena's eyes closed, unresponsive to her, still facing Mac. She held his hand under hers.

"I think she's gone off to sleep," the nurse whispered.

"...Yeah, I think so too," I spoke quietly, getting up. "I'll take a room, I guess."

"Okay."

We walked silently, a few other nurses milling about too. Reaching the room, it was small and plain, white walls. The only furnishing was the bed and wooden bedhead, with a potted plant in the corner which felt out of place. It was neither cold nor hot, which felt relaxing and perfect for sleep. But I didn't feel all right. I barely remembered hearing the nurse murmur a goodnight to me on the way out, because of it.

The image flashed across my head again, as I took off my shoes and plopped down on the bed. I was physically exhausted. The bed was calling. The image of a fair hand on top of the slightly more tanned one below it…

Why are you thinking like this? He's had a rough battle, and Palu- Lady Palutena just wants to support him.

But I had a feeling and it wouldn't stop hounding me.

That's legitimately nothing. Don't make a… molehill out of a mountain, was it? Mountain out of a molehill.

Yeah, anyways. It's, it's nothing.

I lay there, yawning at the spinning fan.

It's nothing.

With that, something clicked, and that was all it took to spiral into sleep.