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. He blinked his eyes open, realizing that nothing protested the motion. Sephiroth didn't tell him no. His eyelids didn't feel heavy from fatigue. And the simple action didn't cause him any pain.

So he pushed it a little further. He could now see, and the sight before him was the ceiling of his room in his house back in Edge. Ah, yes. The torture room. Surely it wouldn't be so bad this time. Cloud knew everything was fake. He wouldn't be fooled this time. He raised and lowered his arm a couple of times, testing its motion. Master Hand had fully healed him before his torture could begin. How considerate.

With that noted, Cloud got out of his bed. He approached his window and stared out at Edge, promising himself that he would be here for real in only a little while. The view wasn't all that pretty; grey buildings that all looked the same, blanketed by a smoggy sky, cars constantly honking just outside his walls. But it was home, and Cloud couldn't wait to get back to it. This was what he was fighting for. This city. To get home. And more importantly, to get back to those who lived there. He turned around, staring at Tifa's still form in her bed. It isn't her, he reminded himself.

But that didn't matter much. It looked just like her. His memories of her face were blurry now, but this machine wasn't limited to his memories. It looked just like her. Her long black hair, her kind expression, the soft way she smiled...it was all there. Cloud just stared down at her for a few minutes, his heart rate accelerating. Tifa...he hadn't seen her in so long.

Laughter from downstairs shook him out of his reverie. The kids. His kids. He could see them. Not for real, but this was good enough, wasn't it? He almost ran down the stairs, stopping just behind the stairwell and watching Denzel and Marlene. They were just as he remembered, not any older, which only proved to him that this wasn't real. But there they were all the same. Denzel sat with his legs pulled into his chair at the table, his curly brown hair falling into his eyes as he concentrated on the game he and Marlene had set before them. Marlene was watching him take his turn with amusement glittering in her soulful eyes, a goofy grin on her face as she took her own turn.

Cloud didn't dare move. If he got up, if he ran to them, if he showed himself, something would go wrong. That's why this torture hurt so much. Not because it was constant pain, but because it was pain brought about by those that you loved and trusted the most. Cloud would stay here. He would watch them for a minute, until Master Hand forced things to go wrong.

Only a few moments after that decision, it was as if the torture machine glitched. Everything around Cloud-the stairs he was sitting on, the roof over his head, even Marlene and Denzel-spasmed. It all flickered black for a moment, ones and zeroes running across the lifeless silhouettes of the things Cloud cherished most. He froze, unsure what was happening. Was this a real glitch? Or was it by design? He didn't know. But he shook himself out of his emotionally vulnerable state. These were not his children. They were thousands of lines of binary code, written to act like Marlene and Denzel just to hurt him. That was all there was to it.

The machine's seizure ended and everything returned to its lively state. Not-Marlene and not-Denzel returned to their game as though they'd never been interrupted. The wind continued to blow the leaves just outside the nearest window. Nothing seemed amiss.

Wait. There. On the floor, totally unconscious, was Young Link. He wasn't supposed to be here. This was supposed to be Cloud's vision. How many people were in the torture room right now? Cloud's memory was foggy. Him. Young Link. And Shulk. Three. Master Hand's machine maxed out at two. But he had so badly wanted to punish all three of them that he was willing to push his conditioning room to its maximum capacity. And it was breaking down.

Cloud ran to Young Link's side. He shook him awake slowly. The kid woke up with a start, his left hand striking out and slapping Cloud on the cheek.

Cloud recoiled, not expecting the sudden retaliation. But it was just a reflexive slap. He hadn't been electrocuted or stabbed or shot or anything. Surely this was just Young Link, not some strange illusion. Why would Young Link be in his house?

Young Link's eyes snapped open after he instinctively lashed out. He sat up, his eyes taking in his surroundings. Confusion blossomed on his face. "C-Cloud? But we're both...we're both in the…torture room...right?"

"Yeah," Cloud confirmed. He gestured to the stairwell they were lying in. "Welcome to my house."

Young Link's eyes widened. "I'm...in your vision? But why?"

"Shulk's being tortured too. There's too many of us. His machine is glitching."

Young Link sneered. "This won't be so bad, then." He peered around the staircase, and then whipped his gaze back to Cloud. "Are those...is that…?"

"Marlene and Denzel," Cloud confirmed.

Young Link's hard expression softened. "I didn't think that's what they looked like."

"I've described them before."

"Poorly."

Cloud shrugged.

"Should we go say hi?"

Cloud shook his head. "No. Something will go wrong. That's what Master Hand wants."

"Well, we can't just wait around," Young Link objected. "Master Hand's patient. He's got all of eternity to finish our torture. We're on a schedule."

Cloud nodded slowly.

"Come on. It's not real. It's not them."

Cloud nodded again.

"Just get it over with."

Cloud stepped out from behind the stairwell. He didn't bother smiling. At once Marlene and Denzel noticed him. Denzel smiled, abandoning his seat and running to Cloud's side. "Cloud! You and Tifa slept in so late this morning!" He ignored Young Link. Young Link wasn't part of this program. He wasn't supposed to be here.

"We were...tired…" Cloud said absentmindedly.

"It isn't them!" Young Link hissed. "Cuss them out, scream at them, do something! You have to make yourself believe this isn't real!"

Cloud stared down at Denzel, who was tugging on his arm, begging him to come join their game. "I...I hate you," Cloud stammered.

Denzel froze. "...What?"

"I hate you," Cloud repeated. "I hate you and your stupid games, Master Hand! These are not my children! You took them from me!"

"Cloud! Are you alright?" Marlene demanded, forcing him to sit down and cupping his face in her hands. Cloud didn't pull away. "You sure look tired."

"Come on, Cloud. It isn't real," Young Link insisted.

"Get away from me," Cloud whispered, standing up and walking away.

"What is going on down here?" Tifa's voice demanded, accompanied by heavy footsteps coming downstairs. Young Link observed her curiously as she rounded the corner from the staircase, staring down at Cloud with her hands on her hips.

"T-Tifa," Cloud stammered.

"No, it's not," Young Link pushed. He stuck his hand towards her torso, but it passed through, the area of contact flickering with the ones and zeroes. "Cloud, I know it hurts, but it isn't them."

Cloud nodded. "What are you going to do? Shoot me?"

Tifa's face erupted with hurt. "What are you going off about? Why would I hurt you?"

"Well, that's why I'm here isn't it?" Cloud demanded. He wasn't talking to Tifa. He was talking to a machine. "You're going to hurt me. One of you is going to hurt me. You aren't real. None of this is real. So do your worst."

Young Link nodded in approval.

Tifa shook her head slowly. "Are you feeling alright, Cloud? You were out driving in the rain last night. Maybe you got sick." She approached him, resting a hand on his forehead. He expected pain the second she made contact. By the way Young Link tensed, so did he. But none came. She just rested her cold hand against his forehead, her head cocked in confusion as she crudely took his temperature. "You don't feel warm," she admitted. "Come on, let's go upstairs and I'll give you a better checkup."

Cloud glanced at Young Link.

"It's up to you," Young Link shrugged.

"You better apologize for being mean when you get better!" Marlene ordered.

Cloud glanced at her, then shook his head and numbly followed Tifa upstairs. Young Link didn't protest. He too climbed the stairs and watched as Tifa went about rummaging through desk drawers until she found a thermometer.

"Here," she said, holding it up to Cloud's forehead. The device beeped, but it didn't hurt. Tifa showed the result to him. Cloud flinched. 'Empty puppet,' was the reading. "Seems normal to me," Tifa shrugged, putting it away.

"T-Tifa!" he objected weakly.

Young Link just rolled his eyes.

Tifa retreated back downstairs. Cloud sat on his bed, feeling disgruntled. This wasn't real. He was here to be made fun of.

"You got this, Cloud," Young Link encouraged. He walked over and rested a hand on the taller man's shoulder. "The second you believe this is real, the second you think that maybe, just maybe, the past two years of your life were nothing but a dream, that's when the torture begins. That's when it really hurts. That's when Master Hand wins. Trust me, I know. I've done this more than enough times to know."

"Have you ever gotten all the way through without falling for it?"

Young Link sighed heavily. "...No. I haven't. Because it's hard, isn't it? It looks just like them, doesn't it? They talk like that, they act like that. And then when-"

And then things went wrong. Cloud fell to the ground as stabbing pain erupted in his head. "All you are...is an empty puppet…" the words replayed over and over, a hushed whisper in the back of his mind as Cloud writhed on the floor. Young Link backed away almost nervously. Cloud couldn't hope to compete with this control. He lost himself quickly, standing back up with green serpentine eyes. Young Link shook his head slowly, his eyes wide. "Oh...they aren't going to hurt you…"

Cloud picked his sword up, the one that came apart into a bunch of different ones, and then ran down the stairs.

"You're going to hurt them…"

Cloud got back downstairs and found that Tifa had joined the kids in their game. It was all smiles and laughter around the table. Until Denzel noticed Cloud. "Cloud...w-what's wrong with your eyes?"

Inside, Cloud was screaming. He couldn't do this. He couldn't hurt them. It wasn't them. It didn't matter. It looked like them. But he didn't have a choice. He walked across the room with his sword held high and his mouth clamped shut. Young Link dashed downstairs and watched with horror as Cloud approached his own family with ill intent.

"Cloud, do better than this," Tifa said softly. "I trusted you. I shouldn't have. An empty puppet, a failed clone, a living legacy of somebody else. That's what you are. Why did I ever love you?"

With tears in his eyes, Cloud brought his sword down on her head. The kids screamed. But not for long. He silenced them quickly thereafter. Leaving him alone, surrounded by his family's blood, all of it spilled by his own hand. He fell to his knees, keeping his eyes closed, his sword clattering to the floor.

Young Link didn't know what to do or say. How can you console someone after something like that? Then they both blacked out as the machine shocked them both into unconsciousness.

Cloud woke up again, anger threatening to quickly break his Limit. He calmed himself. This wasn't real. That wasn't real. Marlene and Denzel and Tifa were all fine. He wouldn't lose just yet.

The sound of people screaming forced himself to full alertness. He stood up and took in his surroundings, but he had no idea where he was. He was standing on a concrete bridge that was swarming with green-tinted robots. Behind him and the advancing bots was a slanted field of green grass cut off by a cliff that rose high above what he could see. Below the bridge was water. And across the bridge...was Shulk's Colony 9. It had to be. It wasn't Young Link's vision. There were modern buildings and telephone wires and other things that couldn't possibly be in Hyrule. Which meant that this was Shulk's vision. And the robots were Mechon, advancing towards his hometown.

Cloud stood and watched for a moment, trying to spot the visionary. There he was, in the midst of all of it, having just battled through a thick line of Mechon, the Monado's blade glowing in the light of dusk. Beside him was a tall man with red hair and dark skin, Reyn, presumably, and another man with longer black hair, probably Dunban.

Colony 9, besides the fact that it was being invaded, didn't look too damaged. Shulk had described his hometown as being wartorn after the first attack by their mechanical enemies, but this place looked fine. Was this, then, the original attack? Was Master Hand making Shulk watch his home get torched again? No, something more important had to happen. Oh, that's right. This is the night where Fiora 'dies.'

Cloud quit watching and ran to Shulk's side. "Shulk!"

The seer turned around, surprise evident on his face as he beheld Cloud running towards him. "C-Cloud?"

"What about the clouds, idiot?" Reyn demanded. "We've got bigger problems!"

Shulk glanced back at his best friend, obviously confused.

"They can't see me," Cloud explained, pushing a hand through Dunban's body and showcasing the binary.

"This isn't real, I know that," Shulk muttered. "But why are you here?"

"There's too many of us in here. The machine only works with two at most."

"And it's you, me, and Young Link all at once," Shulk finished.

His companions were staring at him like he was crazy. He pretended not to care.

"Fiora gets taken tonight, doesn't she?"

Shulk nodded, his eyes downcast.

"It isn't real, Shulk. You know she's just fine. You know that you saved her."

Shulk tightened his grip around his sword's hilt. "Doesn't mean I want to watch it again."

Cloud nodded. "I understand."

"This is my second vision. Were you and Young Link together last time?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"And what?"

"What did you see?"

Cloud shook his head slowly. "...Forget about it."

Shulk focused his attention on the battle raging around him. Cloud was impervious to taking damage here, since this scenario wasn't intended for him. But Shulk was very much tangible in this fake universe, so he had to focus up. He helped Reyn and Dunban fight through wave upon wave of Mechon, the visionary doing most of the damage since normal weapons couldn't damage the empowered machines. Cloud just walked alongside him, hoping that his presence here would keep reminding Shulk that this wasn't real. The ex-mercenary would've loved to help, but he was currently unarmed, and he also couldn't make contact with anything but the ground. This machine was weird. Cloud wondered if it had something to do with DNA.

They got across the bridge, and a giant Mechon with a sneering face descended before them. Metal Face, for now, eventually Mumkhar. It teased Shulk about misusing the Monado for a few minutes. Shulk's expression tightened with frustration, but he didn't verbally reply. Cloud put a hand on his shoulder, nodding to him reassuringly.

The bot finished its monologue, and it initiated a battle against the Homs trio. It was a pitiful fight. Not even the Monado could do damage. All attacks bounced off harmlessly, no matter what Shulk or Reyn or Dunban did. Cloud watched silently.

The battle ended when Metal Face backed off, laughing vehemently. And then came Fiora in her tank. It was undoubtedly her. Cloud could barely see her through the tinted window, but he could definitely see her ginger hair. Her green eyes were narrowed in determination.

Shulk tried to run to her. Metal Face blasted him with electricity, knocking him off his feet. The shock spasmed all of his muscles, and Shulk was unable to stand. He could only sit and stare as Fiora charged Metal Face alone. Again.

Cloud ran to Shulk's side. "It isn't her. It's not her."

Shulk shook his head slowly, anger marring his face. "I don't care. I just...no matter how many times I see this...in my dreams or in my memories or in this machine...I never manage to change this future."

"Sometimes you can't," Cloud said. "Sometimes things happen that can never unhappen and yeah, that's scary. But we all make choices, and we all take actions, and sometimes things just don't work out. But this one did. You saved her. She's alive. You know that."

"Easy for you to say," Shulk spit, forcibly dragging himself to his feet. "You're not watching your best friend get taken away to be turned into a cyborg!"

"Shulk, listen to yourself! You want to know what I just watched, what I just did?"

The visionary remained silent, pathetically clawing his way forward as Metal Face laughed at Fiora's approach.

"Shulk, I just killed my own family. You don't think this is hard for me too?"

Shulk refused to listen, dragging the Monado on the ground. Fiora fired a few missiles. They all found their target, but none of them did any damage. She pressed harder on the gas, intent on just ramming Metal Face into the ground.

That failed miserably. The tank made contact, and came to a screeching halt. Metal Face raised his claws over the glass window of the cockpit. Then he plunged them downwards. Fiora screamed. The glass was stained red with blood. And Shulk screamed too. He fell to his knees, screaming with everything he had and resting his head on the ground.

Cloud didn't know what to do. This wasn't real. Shulk knew it wasn't real. But the visionary didn't care. He wanted...no matter what...he wanted to change this future. This moment right here that had changed everything. This future that had started his original quest of revenge and that led to a battle against a god. But of course he couldn't. He simply couldn't, and it hurt him more deeply than Cloud had ever known.

Shulk screamed until his voice ran dry and his friends dragged him off the ground. Metal Face tossed the smashed tank over his shoulder as though it was nothing, and it crashed into the ground behind him with a heavy thud. Smaller Mechon eagerly jumped onto the sparking machine, tearing it to bits and clawing at Fiora's limp body within the cockpit.

Was this what Shulk saw every time he went to sleep? A future that despite his total control over the Monado, despite his godlike power, despite everything he'd been through, he could never change? This night that had changed his life forever yet could never be rewritten? Cloud almost pitied him.

But with Fiora's downfall seen through, the torture machine shocked them both back into unconsciousness.