Author's Disclaimer: I do not own Super Smash Bros or any of the characters involved in it. I am earning no profit from this story, other than the enjoyment of writing it and sharing it with others! I hope you all enjoy reading it!

Cloud woke up slowly. The first thing he was aware of were people talking. A lot of people. None of the voices he recognized. The second thing he was aware of was that everything hurt. Not just his torso anymore. Several bones in his legs felt broken, his ribs now felt totally smashed, and his face felt bruised. It was if someone had taken him and beaten him up purposefully. He groaned, not daring to move for fear of aggravating one of his many injuries.

But he didn't want to stay asleep either. So he forced his eyes open, his vision initially blurry, and the color white overwhelming his senses. He was staring up at a white ceiling with bright white LED lights giving the room an overly white first impression.

"He's waking up!" a young man said excitedly.

"I've got a potion," another young man added.

Cloud forced himself awake. A potion…? He wanted that. But he really shouldn't trust these people so quickly. They had stood by and watched while he used his Limit. Even if they had cheered while he activated Omnislash, none of them had stepped up to help him. They might not be on his side.

He felt someone sitting on his bed, but lacked the strength to roll over and see who it was. A young woman with bright blonde hair, a crown on her head, and a remarkably pink dress leaned into his field of view. "There you are," she said softly, smiling, her voice gentle. "That's it. Come on around."

Cloud blinked several times before attempting to sit up. His broken ribs stabbed into his insides, and he froze, laying down again and hissing from the pain. He rolled over, his eyes widening in surprise as he beheld the large number of people in the room. There were at least half a dozen, and they all seemed to be waiting for him to wake up.

"Don't move," the woman on his bed said. "Marth, where's that potion?"

"Right here," a man with blue hair and a broadsword at his side answered, stepping forth and handing over a bottle of red liquid. In his off hand rested another bottle of green liquid. The man, Marth presumably, looked down at Cloud critically. "I brought a green one too. I assume that impressive display required some use of magic. Do you need it replenished?" He held up the green liquid and Cloud shook his head. His Limit didn't require MP.

"All that and you don't need magic replenished?" the woman on his bed repeated. "My, you really are something."

"Give him the potion, Peach," somebody chided from the crowd. "He looks like he's about to die." The speaker pushed through everyone else, coming to stand right before Cloud. It was the little boy in green. The one who'd been detained by the young woman, who it seemed wasn't here. "And then this guy needs to answer those stupid questions."

Peach sighed, uncorking the bottle of red and pressing it against Cloud's lips. "Can you drink lying down?"

Cloud nodded.

She poured the liquid into his mouth and he drank it eagerly, his trust issues decidedly forgotten. These people seemed nice enough. And injuries like this would take months to heal naturally.

His trust was not misplaced. Almost instantly, his body began weaving itself together. His broken ribs corrected themselves. His bruised skin lost its purple color and sickly inflammation. His multitude of impressive injuries were all healed immediately by this magical drink. Once the last drop had gone down his throat and Peach removed the bottle from his lips, he sat up slowly. Nausea left him alone and he was not assaulted by dizziness. He was just fine.

Now able to properly observe his surroundings, he took note of all the people in the room. Marth, Peach, and the boy in green stood closest to him. Then there was a middle-aged man with a camouflage bodysuit and grenades hung on his belt. A tall woman with green hair. A bipedal fox dressed in regular clothing with a gun hanging on his hip. And a young man with blonde hair and a flat red sword. All of whom appeared to be very interested in Cloud himself.

"Shulk, the clipboard, if you please," Peach said, still sitting on Cloud's bed. "Let's get this over with."

The blonde-haired boy stepped forward and handed over a clipboard. Peach unclipped a pen from the top part of it and held it in her right hand. She looked up at Cloud, smiling softly. "Just answer these questions for me, okay?"

"Get off my bed," Cloud said firmly. The woman's close proximity to him made him uncomfortable. They'd never met. Why was she so eager to sit so close to him?

Several of the people in the crowd snickered. Peach's lips parted slightly, but she did as Cloud asked, standing a few feet away from him. "What's your name?"

"Cloud Strife," Cloud answered.

"So many of us are named after words," Marth noted. "How curious."

Cloud glanced at him, somewhat intrigued.

Though he didn't vocalize the question, Marth answered it anyway. "Well, we have you and Peach. Daisy, Young Link, Toon Link, Fox, Wolf, Captain Falcon, and Pit just to name a few more. Seems to be a lot to me."

Cloud nodded.

"Yes, yes. Nomenclature, how fascinating," Peach sighed. "Now, how old are you?"

"23."

"What race are you?"

"...Human."

Nobody missed his hesitation. The boy in green and Shulk exchanged a glance. The others reacted with various degrees of intrigue.

"It's not bad to not be human," the boy in green said. "I'm Young Link, by the way. But I'm not human." He tilted his head, allowing his pointed ears to be seen. "I'm Hylian. So answer honestly. What race are you?"

"Human," Cloud answered again. That's what he mostly was anyway. If one discredited his Jenova cells, he was human. How else was he supposed to answer that? Empowered human? Science experiment? Puppet of Jenova? No, he'd just stick with human.

"If you're lying, Master Hand will find out," Marth said darkly.

"I'm not," Cloud replied firmly.

"Those eyes are anything but human," the bipedal fox, hopefully Fox or Cloud was going to be very confused, added helpfully.

"I'm human," Cloud said. "Move on."

Fox rolled his eyes. Young Link and Shulk shared yet another glance, and Cloud got the idea that they knew something he didn't. Or at least something about him that they shouldn't. The white glove had seemed to know who he really was. Did these people? Probably not. They wouldn't be so baffled by his claim of being human if they did.

"Whatever. Where are you from?" Peach continued.

"Nibelheim."

"Are you a hero or a villain?"

"Hero."

"Do you have any official titles?"

"Uh...not really." He'd killed Sephiroth, but nobody addressed him as the Slayer of Sephiroth or anything like that. He wasn't an ex-SOLDIER, he wasn't a true member of Avalanche, he wasn't a Turk or involved in any other organization. He was a hero, certainly. But he was also just a delivery boy now. Nobody treated him like he was super special. Well, except Denzel and Marlene, but that didn't really count.

"A hero without any titles?" Young Link repeated. "Boy, I've saved two worlds and I've got like six."

"You've saved two entire worlds?" Cloud repeated. This child...had saved two whole worlds…? How?

"Oh, here we go," the lady with green hair laughed.

Young Link glared at her. "I'll spare you my entire life story," he decided. "But, yes. Don't judge everything here by the way it looks."

Cloud rolled his eyes. "Are we done here? Am I free to go?"

"You've answered all the questions, yes," Peach answered. "But you can't exactly go anywhere."

"You can leave this room and head downstairs. But the furthest you can go is out front of the mansion. Nobody goes any further away from here than that," Young Link added.

"...Why not?"

"Let us explain what exactly this place is," Marth suggested. "This is not just a mansion. It's a prison."

"A prison for all worlds' greatest heroes and villains," the lady with green hair added. "Everyone here is of some significance where they're from. That's why we ask you those questions."

"Who needs the answer?" Cloud asked.

"Master Hand," Shulk replied. "The white glove that you...attacked earlier."

Cloud grit his teeth. The inefficiency of Omnislash was still quite degrading.

"I'm impressed," Young Link butted in. "I've never seen anyone attack him like that straight out of the cage. And you managed to cut him too! An unprecedented arrival, that's for sure."

"He was so angry he took you inside the arena and beat you up personally, even though you were already unconscious," the man in the bodysuit added.

That explained where all the extra injuries had come from. But how did one cut deserve a total beating like that?

"But anyway, Master Hand has us ask those questions so he can know exactly who he-"

"He already knew a lot about me," Cloud said, looking up. The remark about Jenova, quoting Zack so perfectly, the nickname 'numberless clone'...Master Hand knew a whole lot about Cloud. More than most people did.

"What did he know?" Marth asked.

Cloud grimaced. He chose not to answer that question.

"Maybe he just makes us do it as a basis for us to get to know each other?" Peach suggested.

"Or maybe he does it for Crazy Hand," Shulk guessed.

Cloud cocked his head.

"Back to that explanation," the green-haired woman said quickly. "Like we said, this place is a prison for all worlds' heroes and villains. But not just a prison. A sick coliseum. Master Hand has a brother named Crazy Hand, and the two of them each pick one combatant every day. Those two unfortunate souls are forced to fight against each other. Friendships are cast aside in that arena. Master Hand has forced siblings to fight. Best friends. Servant and master. Worst enemies. Relationships mean nothing if you're chosen to fight."

"...How does he 'make' you fight?" Cloud questioned.

"Gives us this injection that turns your body into a puppet, basically," the man in the bodysuit explained. "You fall unconscious and they get to drive you around until somebody loses. Both contestants wake up in their beds with all the injuries they didn't earn. And then the next day two other people have to fight. So on and so forth for...well, it's been years for some of us."

Cloud narrowed his eyes, staring at the floor. "You can't resist it? At all?" He didn't want to be taken advantage of like that. Not again. Not after what happened with the Black Materia. His free will was one of his most prized possessions. He didn't want it stripped away again.

"No. You can't," Young Link said firmly. "Because believe me, I've tried."

Cloud found it hard to believe that this child's efforts would even be comparable to his own, but he didn't argue.

"And just in case you're thinking about a rash assault on Master Hand, don't bother," Shulk stepped in, glancing slyly at Young Link who scowled in response. "None of your attacks will do anything."

Cloud just waited for him to go on.

"That gun you were shot with," Marth continued, "was a curse. No longer can you do real damage whenever you fight. No matter how sharp your blade is, it won't cut anything. Everything you hit will just be thrown backwards, and damage will be dealt according to gravity, not you."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. If he couldn't slice through things, that would make his style of fighting remarkably ineffective. He was used to cutting through anything in his way, including concrete or even steel. But if his sword functioned more like a baseball bat now, how could he manage such things?

"Enough doom and gloom," the green-haired lady suggested. "We've explained what this place is and how badly it sucks. But none of us can do anything about it now. Shall we go over our names and previous positions, Cloud?"

Cloud nodded.

He was quickly introduced to everyone in the room. The bipedal fox was in fact named Fox, and he'd been a space fighter pilot before being captured. Shulk had saved his entire world with the help of his sword, the Monado, which let him see and avert possible futures. Young Link was the Hero of Time, and he'd saved the worlds of Hyrule and Termina. He was also very avid about the fact that he was fifteen and not twelve, despite his young appearance. Palutena was the green-haired woman, and she was a goddess from another world, a fact that Cloud could barely believe. Marth was known as the Hero-King. Peach was the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Snake, or David, was also a mercenary, though he used grenades and guns versus a blade. Cloud mentioned that commonality, figuring giving himself some basis for connection with one of these people was a good idea.

Once all names had been given, Marth offered Cloud a hand to help him stand. He took it, feeling horribly overwhelmed, angered, and somewhat nervous. This place, all these people, it was so unbelievable. A child who'd saved two worlds. A literal goddess. A sword that could see the future. Cloud was used to magic. He was used to strange things. He'd battled gods before. But the idea that one could be trapped? If an actual deity was stuck here, then what chance did he have? He might've gotten himself into a bigger mess than he'd originally thought.