The instant the beams of light began to swirl around her and the others, Lucina quickly turned tail and ran, knowing this wasn't a fight that she would win. She quickly ran toward the ship that had brought her and the others to the floating island, Meta Knight's personal airship, the Halberd.

"We must make haste to the Halberd!" Lucina yelled to the other Smashers around her.

"There is no time! We must leave it!" Meta Knight, who was now running alongside Lucina, yelled at her.

After being told to abandon the Halberd, Lucina looked around for an escape. She quickly spotted Cloud, who was running toward a portal that had opened up. Since there were no light beams near Cloud or the portal he was near, Lucina and Meta Knight decided this was their best bet at getting away. The two approached Cloud and ran with him through the portal.

After jumping with the other two through the portal, the mercenary-turned-delivery-man breathed a sigh of relief. Once again, he'd made it out unscathed. Following that, he began pacing back and forth, his mind was racing a mile a minute:

"What was that multi-winged creature? Is Sephiroth somehow responsible for all of this? It does seem like his style, but he would've made sure that we knew it was him. Is he even involved in all of this? Gah! There's so much that I don't know!"

"I wonder what I can do in the meantime..."

As Cloud paced, Lucina and Meta Knight took a moment to catch their breaths. Once they recovered, they saw their blonde companion walking in circles. Wondering what he was thinking, they tried to get his attention.

"Cloud? Cloud, are you quite alright?" Meta Knight asked.

"CLOUD!" Lucina yelled, finally getting his attention.

"Wh-what?" blanked Cloud, shaken out of his train of thought.

Noticing his current company, he remembered that he didn't jump alone. "Right. You're here too. I guess I have a team that I can work with. That'll help matters."

"Where are we?" he asked, looking at the other two for answers.

The trio looked around at their surroundings. They noticed thick trees and vines all around them. The ground was wet and there were a bunch of wetland creatures around them. They had landed on a swamp.

"Of all the places, it had to be here," Lucina complained as she got her hair stuck in some tree branches.

"I feel dirty." Meta Knight stated as he was about half deep in a mudhole.

The three trudged through the swamp before making it to the end.

"Where should we head now?" Lucina asked.

"Perhaps we should head to the south. I will admit, know not where we are. But I know the southern part of the planet is home to many landmarks of this place. Perhaps we will come across some of these landmarks. And, if we are lucky, they will hold some of our companions." They all agreed to this and set off.


Meta Knight, Lucina, and Cloud had been traveling together for quite some time. Unfortunately, they had yet to come across any of their fellow Smashers. After clearing an area full of tall rocks, they came to a land with sand on the ground as far as the eye could see.

"It would appear we have arrived in some kind of desert." noted Meta Knight.

"Are you certain? I don't feel the blistering heat of a desert. Actually, it feels rather cold. But it is the middle of the day. And... what is falling from the sky?" Lucina asked.

The three Smashers looked up and saw a powdery white substance falling from the sky. They had all been to cold regions before, so they all knew what it was.

"Snow."

"Strange..." - muttered Cloud. "Whatever's happening here, it doesn't matter if we just stand around. We should find a place to stay and ask about this."

The trio traveled through the frigid desert for quite some time. The air around them was getting colder and colder, but they had no idea where they were or how to get out of the blizzard.

Luckily, they eventually spotted something through the blinding snowfall.

"Is that a village? Thank the gods! Maybe we can find shelter!" Lucina called.

The three made their way to the main entrance of town, finding it guarded by two tall, muscular women wearing outfits very unsuited for the cold. Lucina managed to get past them with no issues, but when Cloud tried to pass, the guards pointed their spears at him.

"H-halt! O-only vais a-are allowed b-beyond this point! No voe may enter Gerudo T-Town!" One of the guards stated through her shivering.

"Vai? Voe? What does that mean? - thought Cloud, confused - "Maybe it means something like 'foreigner'? I guess that there's no harm in asking..."

"Pardon the intrusion, but what does 'vai' or 'voe' mean? We're not from around here."

"I-in the language of t-the Gerudo, 'v-vai' means women, a-and 'voe' means men. W-we of the Gerudo o-only allow fellow w-women into our s-sacred town. Y-you two may n-not pass!" The second guard shivered.

"Is there anywhere else that we could stay? I doubt you let any man who comes here stranded to starve" - asked Cloud

The guards took pity on the men caught in the blizzard like they were.

One of them pointed in a random direction. "T-there is an oasis in approximately one mile northwest of h-here. In t-that direction. You will find a small inn t-there. I w-wish you good luck getting there t-through this blizzard, though."

Lucina stayed put as the other two were about to head out. "Don't worry, I shall see if I can find some supplies in this town and rejoin you as soon as I can." Lucina called. Cloud and Meta Knight nodded and took off in the direction the guard had pointed.

While Cloud was trudging through the snow, he silently thanked that his outfit gave him some warmth.

Between the oppresiveness of the weather and their normally silent attitudes, neither of the two spoke a word.

After some time had passed, it was getting late and nightfall was upon them. Thankfully, they were able to spot some lights in the distance.

"I think I see something. That must be the oasis that the guard told us about"

"Thankfully, we didn't get lost"

As Cloud and Meta Knight made their way to the inn for the night, Lucina was doing the same inside Gerudo Town. She had been warned that while going out during a snowstorm was bad enough, doing so in the dark was pretty much suicide. So, she found an inn in town and slept there for the night.

Come daybreak, Lucina managed to find enough warm clothes for herself and her companions and set out in search of the oasis her friends had been sent to the day before. As soon as they were reunited, they began talking about what their next move should be.

"So, from what we've gathered is that they don't let men of any kind into their town. Must be a cultural thing. However, that is also the most important place in this region, so we can't ignore it."

"We need to gather more information on what's going on here and where we should go next. Nonetheless, I don't want to split our party again, to lessen the danger to any of us"

"This means that all of us should enter the town"

Oh, no... Cloud just realized what this meant, and felt a wave of anxiety while his face grew pale.

"I am afraid we do not have any other option, Cloud. It is the only way we may enter the town and find out what is causing this mysterious blizzard." Meta Knight stated.

"However, I must ask how we will get you into the town, Meta Knight. I do not see any way that we might pass you off as a woman." Lucina said.

Recovering from his bad memories for a second, Cloud thought about it and had an idea: "How about we just remove his mask, cape and all? I heard that he looks like Kirby underneath, and if that's the case, I doubt they'll be able to tell whether he's a man or a woman"

"If he doesn't speak, that is."

"I am afraid that is not an option. This mask is never to be removed in front of others. It is a vow I took years ago."

Lucina thought for a moment, then realized that one of the items she had brought with her was a fairly large bag to hold other supplies. "I respect your desire not to remove your mask. I once had a similar feeling when I wore a mask, until it was destroyed. Perhaps you can instead be smuggled inside our bag?"

"I suppose there is no other option. I have been subjugated to worse humiliations, after all."

After dressing Cloud up as a girl (with the blonde hating every second of it), and having Meta Knight stow away inside their bag, the gang began their trek back to Gerudo Town. They managed to get in without any hassle, meaning Cloud's disguise had worked. Once inside, they tried to get information from the locals about why this snowstorm was brewing in the middle of a desert.

As they learned, the snowstorm had started the day before. The leader of the town (a young girl named Riju) sent parties of scouts to try and see what was going on, but they were forced to return quickly, or risk dying from hypothermia.

As it was, the town wasn't going to last for more than a week, since they, while used to the cold of the desert night, were ill-prepared to last such a permanent lack of heat.

"Pardon me, your highness, but did your guards find any clue as to what is causing this strange weather?" Lucina asked.

"None. However, some of the guards reported seeing a small figure, no larger than a child, near the center of the storm. However, they believe this to merely be a figment created by the blinding snow."

While he wanted to interject and ask about it, Cloud decided not to speak for fear of giving away his true gender to the Gerudo. He figured that he wouldn't fool them with any falsetto of his.

So instead, he whispered something to Lucina. "My companion wishes to know if there is anything more you can tell us about the child-like figure your guards saw in the snowstorm."

The Gerudo woman raised an eyebrow at this behavior, but said nothing about it.

"Like I said, the party thought it was just an illusion, so we didn't pay much attention to it. If you want to check it out for yourselves, it was due southward to the town. I wouldn't recommend it, since the storm's even harsher in that direction."

Cloud looked in Lucina's direction and then towards a more secluded place, and she understood.

Once out of eyeshot of onlookers, Cloud commented: "The timing of the appearance of this snowstorm and Galeem's attack is too similar. They have to be related somehow."

"I believe you are correct, Cloud. We must find the source of this disturbance. It will lead us closer to the one responsible for all of this." Meta Knight declared.

"But how? Who could be behind this snow? All we know is that there is supposedly a child at the center of the blizzard. Do we know anyone who is young and can control snow?" Lucina asked.

After thinking about it for a few moments, Cloud remembered someone fitting that description. Well, two someones.

"Weren't there two fighters that did that? I think their name was the Mountain Climbers. Never paid much attention to them. They sure didn't possess this much power, though."

After a small pause, he continued. "But why would only one be there? I recall seeing them together at every turn. It doesn't make any sense."

"The Ice Climbers? Yes, you may be right. But why would they do this? They always seemed so nice whenever I spoke to them." Lucina stated.

"Perhaps Galeem has put them under some manner of mind control. He may have even separated them when he attacked. We must get to the bottom of this, and soon. I can only hope we will last against the bitter cold."