Reflections of The Past

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience everyone, this shouldn't take too long." Young Link said as he led his team down a large non-descript hallway, one of many that comprised the layout of the smash mansion.

"It's no problem at all Young Link. Get what you need to be prepared for the match." Isabelle perked up.

"This better be quick." Wolf grumbled from the back of the group. He was deliberately walking slower than everyone else so that he would have a little room to himself.

"Relax Wolf, we still have an hour before the match starts. We won't miss it." Lucina reassured him. Though it was easy to see that Wolf wasn't fully convinced judging by the unchanged, deadpan expression on his face. Trying to walk anywhere in a place as gigantic as the smash mansion was always a time-consuming process where you were liable to show up late.

In truth, Wolf was still a little on edge due the interactions he had with Young Link and Lucina a few days ago when they ate in the lunch room together. His small outburst at them when he felt as though they were prying too much into his business regarding Isabelle set a sour mood for him since then and put him on the defensive. Even If Young Link had assured Wolf that they were not trying to antagonize him in any way.

Still, the distance Wolf tried to maintain with Young Link and Lucina was mitigated somewhat by all three of them going to Master Hand the following day and asking him about lessening the workload for Isabelle. As it turned out, Master Hand was honestly unaware of how overstressed Isabelle had been from all the paper work and sincerely apologized to her. As a thanks for all the hard work she had put in to helping the staff, Master Hand granted Isabelle a full break from any office work for the next three months allowing her to relax in her spare time between tournament matches.

This brings us back to now, a full three days later. Isabelle was all rested up and ready for the team's first match in over a week and half. Something long overdue in Wolf's opinion (even if he still had his single matches), as this meant the team could start increasing their tournament team ranking again.

That is of course if they were going to be able to make it back to the battle arena in time.

"Hey kid, how do you even know this is the right storage room? All of these hallways look identical." Wolf spouted.

"I used this room a lot during the second tournament when I was last here, so I remember exactly where it is. Lucky for us it's on the same floor as the battle arenas so it's not too far away." Young Link replied.

"Right… and remind me again why we're all going there?"

"Well in case you didn't notice, I just need to grab a spare deku shield." Young Link pointed to his back. It was funny to say but without his shield, Young Link's back looked strangely empty. Naked even, save for his sword tightly locked into its sheath.

"My last one broke earlier this morning when I was fighting against Roy. That Binding Blade of his is no joke! Just a couple of hits from it burnt my shield to a crisp. Thankfully I have some spares stored away in this room."

"As for why we're all going," He looked back at Wolf with a smile, "We all agreed as a general rule to stick together right before matches begin, remember?"

No sooner had Young Link finished his sentence had the group arrived at their destination. Wasting no time, Young Link quickly opened the door and flipped the light switch to reveal the room's interior. The faint illumination from the old ceiling lights displayed a large rectangular room divided into sections by rows of metal shelves as well as numerous crates stacked upon each other with plenty of other boxes cluttered around the back of the room.

As Lucina, Isabelle and Wolf walked in behind Young Link, the first thing that became apparent to them about the room other than its layout was its size. It was particularly big in comparison to the all the other storage rooms the combatants were given access to, enough so that it was almost half the size of the lounge.

But what made this storage room truly different however was the fact that it mainly housed outdated and obsolete equipment no longer used for the tournaments. Original model blasters, beam swords, old cracker fireworks launchers, and even cloaking devices that no longer worked were all stashed away in various crates around the room. Some of which were even missing their lids causing the equipment to stick out in the open.

"Oh wow, it looks like a lot of stuff has really piled up in this room over the years huh? It might take a minute or two to find the small box with my shields in it." Young Link stated awkwardly.

"The sight of so many different kinds of weapons and tools stored together in one place reminds me of my father's old weapon supply room back at our castle. The only difference with this room however is that it's severely cluttered and disorganized." Lucina added as she observed the small layers of dust on everything. The room clearly hadn't been tended to in quite a while.

Wolf rubbed his forehead in slight frustration. "You've got to be kidding me. Do you even know if your shields are still in here with all this useless crap!?"

"They should be. Master Hand said that he didn't get rid of them just in case he ever invited me back." Young Link said as began to press himself up against the wall and carefully scooted himself between all the large crates.

"Just sit tight guys, I'll be back in a minute." And just like that, Young Link disappeared from sight amidst all the storage items.

Faint sounds of rummaging could be heard as Young Link continued traversing through the back of the storage room when suddenly a loud crashing noise came out of nowhere. "I'm okay! Just knocked a few things over." Young Link shouted.

Exasperated and having no choice but to sit and wait for his teammate to find what he was looking for, Wolf simply closed his eye, folded his arms, and proceeded to leaned against the wall as if to make a non-verbal statement that just screamed "don't bother me until you're finished and we can leave."

Picking up on this cue but not wanting Wolf to completely seclude himself away from the team in his usual habits, Isabelle decided to stand next to Wolf. She hummed quietly to herself to patiently pass the time. She had had enough interaction with him at this point to be able to pick up on some of his mannerisms, including obvious signs of irritation. Even still, she knew Wolf wasn't nearly as reclusive as he often presented himself. She made sure to stand just far enough to give him some space, but also close enough so he wouldn't feel alone.

This turned out to be a good call on Isabelle's part as her quirky humming actually tempered Wolf' mood a bit by how adorable it was even if he didn't show it.

Meanwhile, Lucina's curiosity got the better of her as she began to look around the room, inspecting all the equipment and miscellaneous junk that had been abandoned for one reason or another. She couldn't help but marvel at all of the so called "outdated" technological gadgetry. Most of the stuff that had been left to collect dust would still be considered far more advanced than most weaponry available to people back in her time period.

This held true for most of the things she had come across since coming to the smash mansion during the last tournament. Video screens, controlled water systems, artificial lighting utilized by harnessing electricity, automatic weapons, these things were all new to her and unlike anything she experienced back home where all manner of industrial tools seemed archaic by comparison. The prevalence of high-end magic seemed to be the one thing that was closest to the futuristic technology Lucina had been exposed to, but even then, the two things couldn't be fully compared to one another.

She really felt out of her element being here, another thing her and Young Link had in common that they had bonded over.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucina saw something familiar that drew her attention. It was a large wooden bin with metal casing that was filled with swords Lucina immediately recognized. Roughly edged bronze swords with a dulled greenish-grey tint piled out of the casing.

"So, this is where Robin has been keeping them." Lucina said quietly to herself.

She had always wondered where the master tactician of her father's army kept all the bronze swords they frequently used in battle. It seemed that Young Link wasn't the only one that used this room to keep spares of less durable weapons. It was funny how everything seemed so replaceable here. With such an ease of access too.

"I found them!" Young Link shouted from behind multiple crates, breaking the silence between his teammates. While Wolf remained unfazed, Lucina and Isabelle turned their heads in the direction where Young Link's voice was coming from. He managed to come back into view from the opposite side of the room by carefully crawling underneath an open gap between two wooden creates filled with used smoke balls.

"Sorry for the delay but it's far more clustered in the back of the room than it is here in the front. It's like crawling through a dungeon in there! But I got my spare deku shield, so I'm all good to go!" Young Link said as he stood up and dusted himself off. He then adjusted the shield on his back to make sure it was properly fastened to his sword's sheath.

"Including this one, I only have about four shields left. I should be a little more careful using them If I want them to last the rest of the tournament." Young Link added.

Hearing this, Wolf finally got up from his position. "Here's a question kid, why the hell are you even bothering to use these flimsy shields anyway? If they break so easily you should get better equipment. I've seen your counterparts using metal shields that look a lot more durable, why aren't you using one yourself?"

Young Link let out an odd chuckle, he had the look of slight embarrassment on his face and seemed to take the question nervously "Well...you certainly aren't wrong Wolf. In fact, I agree with you. The truth is I actually do have a better assortment of weapons including shields, I just chose not to bring them with me to this tournament."

"Why?" Wolf scoffed. "Who the hell comes to a fighting tournament like this, deliberately using poor quality weapons?"

"Well that's kind of a long story Wolf, one that I'm sure you aren't too interested in hearing right now given your tone."

"Whatever kid." Wolf brushed off Young Link's response. "Just make sure we don't lose our placement down the line because your equipment breaks, and you can't fight anymore."

"I'll be sure to do that. But know this Wolf. I am a very different person than when I first came to this mansion during the first smash tournament. I have my reasons. After all, the weight of your travels can really change your perception of things."

As the team began making their way to the storage room exit, Lucina's cape caught onto to something sticking out of a box on a filing rack near the door. Without realizing until it was too late, her cape pulled the box from its shelving and dropped to the floor with a resulting loud crashing sound. Immediately everyone's attention was drawn to the numerous miscellaneous items and devices that had been scattered across on the floor.

"Oops" Lucina said innocently.

"Now what the hell did you go and do that for?" Wolf barked.

"Ah sorry. It feels like this cape is just more trouble than it's worth sometimes." Lucina humorously joked. Embarrassed, she immediately knelt down to pick up the scattered objects.

"Just leave it" Wolf said bluntly. "It's not our problem, just let the custodian or whoever's job it is to clean these storage rooms take care of it."

"Given the state of this room I highly doubt that." Young Link quietly added in.

"It's fine. This will only take a minute." Lucina grabbed a couple of old blasters and started balancing them on her arms.

"We don't have time for this." Wolf argued.

"It's not that much Wolf, calm down." Isabelle spoke up.

"It doesn't matter, It's not our problem. We have 30 minutes left before our match starts and it's a long walk back to the arena. Let's just go already!"

"No wolf." Isabelle replied. "It's a mess we made, and we should clean it up. It's only a small spill and it won't take too long if we all help Lucina pick everything up."

"You know If you guys would stop worrying about shit like this, we'd start winning some matches."

"This is important! If we can't clean up clutter together as a team, there's no way we can fight any other kind of battle and win!"

"Hey, you can't just—"

As Wolf looked at Isabelle, he could see the sternness in her eyes. She wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Lucina spoke from her kneeled position on the floor. "Let's not fight about this. Wolf, you can go on ahead—"

"Fine…I'll help." He spouted.

As it turned out, the box that had been accidentally knocked over was the old "lost and found" bin used during prior tournaments for anything that had been left unattended for extended periods of time or had simply been discarded around the mansion. Old Pokéballs with nothing inside them, worn out white gloves, tattered caps, a heavily damaged visor mask, and even some rusted old bolt's and screws that had to have come from either R.O.B or Megaman.

"Who's even supposed to be in charge of this?" Wolf angrily questioned.

"I don't know, but the Lost and Found in the mayor's town would never get this bad." Isabelle added in.

A few minutes passed by as everyone in the team went silent as they continued the small clean up session. Wolf briefly looked over to Isabelle as she was picking up discarded smash ball logo shirts.

"She's kinda cute when she's mad." He thought to himself.

In the midst of everyone putting everything back into the box, Isabelle picked up something strange.

What's this?" she said holding up what appeared to be head gear. It looked like two metal straps connected to a weird high-tech eye lens that happened to be cracked. The metal casing also seemed to be heavily scratched and partially rusted showcasing its severe wear and tear.

"Well now, I didn't think I'd ever see this thing ever again." Wolf said.

"You know what this is wolf?"

"Yeah, to put it into simple terms it's basically a prosthetic eye and it was originally mine."

Hearing this, all attention was put on wolf as his teammates looked at him with piqued curiosity.

"...A prosthetic eye? is that even possible?" Lucina questioned in disbelief. being a royal born warrior who grew up on the battlefield Lucina was no stranger to the concept of prosthetics for missing body parts people would lose or have heavily damaged in combat, however this concept would only extent as far as limbs like and arm or a leg. A damaged eye is something that usually cannot be replaced or fixed through normal means.

"Hmph." Wolf uttered as he grinned slightly, "Oh it's possible all right, with the right technology you'd be surprised what can be made".

"This thing was developed on a planet called Katina located back in my home galaxy of the Lylat system. It's part of a specialized series of technology made for developing advanced prosthetics and organs. I got my hands this device about four or five years ago to serve as replacement for my left eye I lost a long time ago.

Isabelle's face lit up in excitement. She was clearly interested in the technical specs of the gadget. It was something she had never seen before and wanted to understand more on how futuristic body replacements could possibly function.

"How does it work!? Isabelle asked enthusiastically.

"It's a little complicated but—" Wolf held up the headgear and pointed at the lens." This screen display on the lens of the 'eyepatch' is meant to go over your missing or damaged eye and acts as a video camera that records what you see in front of you. It then converts that visual video information in electrical signals right here." Wolf said pointed at the small compartment on the side of the headgear right next to the lens.

"After that, it transmits all of the electronic signals to the implant the person would have to get inside of their head and bam! You're able to see through what is essentially an artificial eye."

As a demonstration, Wolf then put the old headgear on his head to show his teammates how it would fit. "Feels like old times wearing this thing".

All three of his teammates were stunned in amazement. Both at the technical explanation of how Wolf's former gadget worked but more so because It was the first time Wolf had spoken to the group as a whole without a glazed expression. There was a what seemed like a slight gleam in his eye as he reminisced about a time not too long ago.

"That's a very impressive gadget Wolf. I never would have imagined something like this could be possible. But I'm confused, you said you got it to replace your missing eye years ago? My question is why did you get rid of it?" Lucina asked.

"Well despite what I just said, this thing has with some serious drawbacks." Wolf said taking the headgear off.

"For one, getting the necessary implant surgically put into and later taken of out my head for this thing to work was a serious pain in the ass. Moreover, it was very difficult to keep maintenance since it is a very delicate gadget. Any minor glitch, error, or damage would cause it to stop working immediately.

"But the biggest hurdle was the fact that there was generally a second or two delay with the information being sent from the lens to the implant to my brain. other than throwing off my timing often, this inconsistency with the visual information with vision often made me very disorientated and gave me headaches.

"By the end of the third tournament I had enough and just discarded this thing. I'm guessing someone on the staff picked it up thinking someone had lost it and put it in the lost and found bin.

"In the end I just figured it wasn't worth the trouble or the literal headaches. I had to just accept what I had lost and learn to deal with my handicap properly." Wolf said as he lightly threw his electronic eye patch back into the lost and found box. "Maybe in another ten or twenty years when I can get an actual artificial eye that works without any of the issues or problems this one does, I may reconsider it. But for the time being I'm content with how I am.

"So, are we done here?" Wolf questioned with a slight sarcastic tone.

Young Link and Lucina had just finished picking up the last few items and putting the rest back into the box.

"Yeah I think we're good." Lucina said placing the box back onto the shelf.

And with that the team left the storage room.

"Well that was quite an informative trip. You have quite the interesting story behind your equipment Wolf." Isabelle perked up. "Kind of makes me wish I had some special history of my own to share."

"But you do Isabelle." Lucina chimed. "It's the same for all of us. We each bring something new to the table. A little part of our worlds to share with others. Things, ideas, experiences we'd never be able to come across in our lifetimes. Even if it's just crossing our swords on the battlefield, we all share our story in different ways, even if we say nothing at all." Lucina's hand loosely moved across the hilt of the Parallel Falchion sheathed on her belt. She suddenly became more aware of its weight.

"Not only are we a part of our own worlds, but we are a part of this one, as well as all the worlds that connects through here. Interconnected even through our smallest actions."

"That's so inspiring Lucina." Isabelle said in awe at her teammate's insight. "Wisdom like that must come from a lifetime of adventuring!"

"Well for a time, I was so obsessed with securing a future for myself, for my family, for the world. And once I had accomplished that, I realized I didn't think about what that future would even look like. Now I sometimes wonder if they'll tell stories about me, a hundred years from now. I even wonder what kind of story I'll be making for myself tomorrow. Or perhaps I'm just paranoid."

Lucina's powerful words seemed to stir something up inside Wolf as it made him wonder what kind of story he would end up making over the course of his life. Or if it even mattered at all. Space wasn't as fond of legends as planet-siders. Its endless scope seemed to have a way of making everything seem irrelevant or trivial.

It suddenly occurred to Wolf how little he understood about his teammates and their motivations, especially Isabelle. How much did he really know about her beyond the surface-level stuff they often talked about during their early morning coffee meetups?

Out of nowhere Wolf stopped dead in his tracks, His fur stood on end as a chill went down his spine. Wolf could feel a very faint sense of bloodlust in the air, a sensation he hadn't experienced for quite a while. It was hard to pick up where it was coming from, but he could tell it was directed at him.

Young Link, Lucina, and Isabelle all turned around as they noticed Wolf's unmoving stature.

"Wolf what's wrong? Are you okay?" Isabelle asked.

Young Link and Lucina knew something was up as they looked at Wolf's disposition and then back at each other. Being warriors themselves who have been in plenty of life or death situations, they had started to pick up on the uneasy feeling in the air.

Wolf turned his head around to look behind him at the empty hallway, only to see nothing. There was no sign of anyone anywhere. Though it was hard to say, he was sure the intense feeling was coming from behind him.

He just stood there for a good minute just looking down the hallway as if expecting someone to just walk up to him and reveal themselves, but alas, no one did.

Now concerned, Isabelle walked over to his side and placed her paw gently on his arm nudging him a bit, "Wolf what's going on? What are you staring at?"

No response. All three of her teammates remained silent, giving Isabelle the impression she was missing something important.

Wolf broke his stance and turned back to face her. "It's nothing Isabelle, I just thought someone was watching me that's all." Wolf said in a reassuring tone, though the look in his eye said otherwise. A small detail that didn't escape the notice of Young Link and Lucina.

"I'm just imagining things. C'mon, let's go, we have a match to get to."

Wolf guided Isabelle to start walking with him as he gestured for Young Link and Lucina to follow suit.

As the squad of four walked towards the designated fighting arena disappearing from sight, a strange shadow began to appear on the wall of the far end of the hallway where it split into a two-way dividing path.

The shadow's silhouette took on a large menacing appearance as a serrated serpentine-like tail slipped out from around the hallway corner while a large claw gripped the corner of the intersected wall.

Author's Notes: Well now, it seems that this chapter isn't so much strictly Wolf x Isabelle centered content, as it is a little bit of continuity/world building. This chapter was more or less a chance for me to elaborate a little further on both Wolf and Young Link's character and their connections to the past smash tournaments they were in, and how that fits in with their characters presently.

Unfortunately, I had some difficulty with in integrating Young Link's part in the chapter, so I had to cut it out. I didn't want it to feel crammed in and bloat the chapter with too much exposition (more so then there already is), so I decided to save it for a future chapter when I can fit it in when it feels natural. The irony in this decision is that after doing this I expanded Lucina's role a bit to give her a little more presence.

I want to give a very special thanks to my friend Jonathan for going above and beyond with this chapter's Illustration, he put a lot of work into it and I'm very grateful for all his efforts. If you haven't yet I highly recommend checking out the Ao3 version of this fic so you can see the illustrations. Also, in addition to his twitter account previously mentioned, My friend has just recently restarted his old DA account under the username "Bacchusdiem". Please be sure to go check it out when you can as he also uploads the chapter illustrations there in addition to his own artwork.

Lastly, I also want to say thank you to everyone for being so patient with the uneven release schedule of new chapters. I know how hard it can be waiting for new content for fanfictions and fancomics so it makes me happy that all of you who are interested in the fic are being so understanding. I'll do my best to keep a decent enough schedule for the fic.